In Monterey County, in the hills near San Luis Obispo, nine solar field workers came down with Valley fever, five visited ERs and one was hospitalized. But these Monterey County cases were not isolated. This year is shaping up to be the worst on record for people infected with Valley fever in California.

State health officials there announced 2016 broke the record for the most Valley fever cases reported since the state started keeping count in 1995. Now, 2017 is on pace to have even more infections.

From January through October, 5,121 cases were reported to the state health department, compared with 3,827 cases during the same period in 2016.

So what’s going on? And could we see a similar outbreak here in our Valley?

For that we turned to Dr. George Thompson, associate professor of Medicine at UC-Davis, and he started with a quick reminder of what Valley fever is.