Shredded iceberg lettuce is most likely not the only source behind this summer’s cyclosporiasis outbreaks in the U.S., and pinpointing every contaminated food may be impossible, according to medical experts.
The Food and Drug Administration has traced one cluster to a Taylor Farms facility in Mexico. The agency is simultaneously investigating at least five other separate clusters of the parasitic illness, including a newly reported outbreak involving 72 cases.
“In any outbreak situation, you’re probably going to underestimate the actual number of cases,” Dr. Zoe Weiss, director of clinical microbiology at Tufts Medical Center in Boston, told ABC News. “There may be people who have very minor symptoms, and they never present to care, or people who just try to tough it out and eventually get better and again never present to care.”
Cyclosporiasis is caused by the microscopic parasite cyclospora, which spreads through food or water contaminated with human feces, triggering symptoms ranging from fatigue and body aches to severe, prolonged diarrhea.
Nationwide case counts have climbed into the thousands this year, far outpacing the typical annual cases, with dozens of states reporting infections and hospitalizations.
Leafy greens like lettuce are especially prone to carrying foodborne pathogens because they can be contaminated during growing or processing and are usually eaten raw. Cooking helps kill the germs.
Only a small fraction of cyclosporiasis cases nationally get definitively traced back to a specific food item in any given year, complicating outbreak investigations.
Experts caution that even as one source is identified, other undetected contaminated products may still be circulating and causing illness.
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