Drug Shows Some Promise for People Suffering From Valley Fever

Here are the morning’s top stories on Thursday, July 30, 2026

• Valley fever cases continue to climb across California. The fungal disease is showing up in places where doctors may not expect it. And now a new study suggests an experimental drug could offer hope for people with the most severe form of the illness. 
• At this week’s LA Police Commissioners meeting, a report documented potential misconduct by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers operating in the city. 

California’s been experiencing a record number of cases of Valley Fever. It’s a fungal infection caused by breathing in spores that live in soil. Its most severe form can be deadly or require lifelong treatment. But now, a new drug is showing promise against the most severe cases of the illness.

Dr. Fariba Donovan is an associate professor at the University of Arizona College of Medicine Valley Fever Center for Excellence. She’s studying whether Olorofim can help people with severe symptoms. “Patients have intact immune systems and the disease is just an uncomplicated pneumonia. Sometimes we don’t even consider medical treatment, but we have to diagnose the patients and give them reassurance that post-immune response will take over the disease and they don’t necessarily need an antifungal treatment. However, sometimes when patients develop severe disease such as meningitis, they do need treatment, and all of those medications are suppressing the growth of the fungus, but they don’t eliminate the fungus,” she said. “Olorofim is blocking the RNA and DNA synthesis, and by doing so, blocks the protein synthesis, and technically can eliminate the fungus. So we think that actually by using this medication, that has very minimal side effects, potentially at one point, although we are not there yet. We don’t have enough data to say that potentially we can give the patient medication for a period of time and then stop it and patient should be okay.”

Donovan said more research is being done about the potential benefits of Olorofim, and hopefully, they can eventually receive approval from the Food and Drug Administration.

A year ago at this time, the streets of Los Angeles and other American cities were the sites of highly visible, large-scale immigration raids. While those scenes have died down, immigration enforcement remains more quietly active.

Federal data show Immigration and Customs Enforcement detained more people in June, at 43,000, than in any month since January 2025. Locally, Los Angeles Police Department officials say June had the highest tally of potential unlawful conduct by federal immigration officers. The 12 incidents investigated mark the most since the department began reporting the data in March.

German Hurtado, LAPD immigration affairs liaison, said in an interview that he noticed the uptick of reported immigration enforcement incidents, but could not say what caused the increase. He said the increase seen in June might be reflective of the department’s efforts to capture more of the potential issues. “We’re finding better ways to improve how to capture these incidents,” Hurtado said. “It could be a combination of everything, but I did see that it was a large increase.”

In February, Mayor Karen Bass issued a directive requiring the reporting. Police commissioners approved the most recent report at their meeting Tuesday.