Federal Project Grant Award Summary

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) awarded the University of California, San Diego a $420,228 Project Grant under the Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research program (CFDA 93.855) on June 5, 2026, with a completion date of May 31, 2028. This secondary data analysis study will examine the relationship between dust exposure and coccidioidomycosis incidence in Arizona using a novel database of spatiotemporally refined dust concentration estimates and over 126,000 reported coccidioidomycosis cases from 2005 to 2022. The research will quantify the effects of daily ambient dust exposure on disease incidence, assess the impact of extreme dust events on disease outbreaks, and identify vulnerable populations—particularly those characterized by low income, poor housing quality, and racial/ethnic minority status—most susceptible to dust-related infection risk.

This research directly addresses a critical public health gap in understanding environmental drivers of coccidioidomycosis, a fungal infection that accounts for nearly one-third of community-acquired pneumonia cases in Arizona and represents approximately two-thirds of all U.S. cases. With reported cases doubling from 2013 to 2021 and 2019 cases alone estimated to cost $736 million in lifetime expenses, the project will generate evidence-based knowledge to inform public health interventions and policy responses to this growing infectious disease burden in the southwestern United States.