That doesn't sound too good. I am a little paranoid that even if there was a mass health risk and our government health agencies knew about it, they wouldn't tell the public if they weren't able to fix it.
It does sound like a virus instead of a bacteria infection since it is getting through the blood-brain barrier. Then again, it might be something like valley fever.
Coccidioidomycosis - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Talk to some universities, there are some people there that may want to study a bunch of people with this.