A 52-year-old detective with the Bakersfield Police Department has died from complications from an illness caused by a fungus that lives in the soil and dirt in California's Central Valley.
According to KGET-TV, Detective Kevin Hock died Sunday from an affliction known as Valley Fever, which can cause chest pain, cough, fatigue, fever, headaches, muscle aches, night sweats, joint aches, and weight loss.
The disease is contracted by breathing in spores from fungus—known as Coccidioides Immitis or Coccidioides Posadasii—that grows in certain types of soil common to the area. The spores can be put into the air by farming, construction, and high wind.
Death from the disease is not common, but also not unheard-of.
Detective Hock had been with the department since 1993.
