As an Arizona native, both my best friend and one of my college professors acquired the disease and became seriously ill. My professor had to miss most of the year of the class I signed up for, and my best friend was down for an entire year with weakened lung capacity, as well as not being able to drink an ounce of any sort of liquor while taking the medication she needed to fight it. These are probably 5s on a scale of 1-10 with how bad this disease is.
It's horrible, and I wouldn't wish it on anyone. I'd say be careful when you visit AZ or CA, but there's not really anything you can do except avoid the dusty areas entirely.
This just reminds me that Prof. Fang Lizhi[1], who was a famous astrophysicist, vice-president of the University of Science and Technology of China, a prominent activist during the 1989 student uprising in China, later hid in U.S. embassy in Beijing for months, exiled in U.S. and worked as Professor of Physics in Univ. of Arizona also suffered from Valley Fever [2], and was said to have died of it.
It's horrible, and I wouldn't wish it on anyone. I'd say be careful when you visit AZ or CA, but there's not really anything you can do except avoid the dusty areas entirely.