It\u2019s July. You buy salad. You get sick.<\/p>\n
Again.<\/p>\n
If you\u2019ve spent any time this summer trying to enjoy leafy greens, you know the drill. Gastrointestinal misery is sweeping through the country, with the Midwest taking the hardest hits. The culprit is Cyclospora<\/em>, a parasite that lives on fresh produce and causes diarrhea that ranges from uncomfortable to explosive.<\/p>\n People are asking the obvious question. When will it end?<\/p>\n Experts hesitate.<\/p>\n Look at Michigan. It is currently witnessing the largest outbreak of cyclosporiasis in recent memory.<\/p>\n As of July 24, the state had reported 8,176 cases since June 22. Natasha Bagdasarian, the state\u2019s chief medical executive, calls the usual annual count of 40 to 50 “normal.” What happened in Michigan is unprecedented. And frankly, the real number is likely much higher.<\/p>\n Testing is expensive. It takes resources. So these thousands of cases? They\u2019re probably just a sample.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s just a sample of the true outbreak.\u201d The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have linked Michigan\u2019s spike to dozens of cases in eight other states across the Midwestern and Southern US. The FDA is simultaneously investigating a separate contamination cluster.<\/p>\n Some scientists say the peak is behind us.<\/p>\n Gerardo Lopez, a parasitologist at the University of Arizona, points to biology. Cyclospora<\/em> has a defined seasonal pattern. Infections usually climb in early summer and crash by August. We are past mid-July.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re already past mid-July\u2026 This should be the peak,\u201d Lopez says.<\/p>\n The FDA agrees, emphasizing that the parasite has a defined lifecycle and cases will likely decline.<\/p>\n But here\u2019s the catch. Tracing Cyclospora<\/em> is a nightmare. The parasite can take two weeks to form spores after contaminating soil, and another two weeks to trigger symptoms in anyone who eats them. By the time you\u2019re sick, the trail is cold.<\/p>\n Last week, the FDA traced some Michigan cases to iceberg lettuce from Taylor Farms de Mexico. The company recalled products sourced from Mexico. Then the FDA admitted a test result had been a false positive.<\/p>\n Does that mean the lettuce wasn\u2019t the source? Lopez isn\u2019t buying it. He says the products have been pulled. Things should return to normal. \u201cWe\u2019ve never seen any type of outbreak that [continues] past that window,\u201d he argues.<\/p>\n Bagdasarian disagrees. She sees an endgame, but it\u2019s fuzzy.<\/p>\n This outbreak \u201cgoes way beyond normal seasonality.\u201d She\u2019s worried about machinery contamination or cross-contamination spreading the parasite beyond a single crop.<\/p>\n The state is doing “very tedious work.” Staff have abandoned other projects to interview thousands of sick people. They ask victims to recall every meal from the past month. Then, the data gets entered manually. It\u2019s slow. It\u2019s painful.<\/p>\n And it\u2019s not enough.<\/p>\n Bagdasarian is begging for federal coordination. She wants to know what Ohio, Indiana, and New York are seeing. Right now, state-level tracking is disjointed.<\/p>\n \u201cWe really need to understand how our data matches what\u2019s happening elsewhere,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n Nicole Arnold, a food safety expert at Ohio State University, offers a colder perspective.<\/p>\n Yes, the current outbreak in the Midwest may taper off. That doesn\u2019t mean summer is safe.<\/p>\n \u201cMultiple cyclosporiasis outbreaks are taking place.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n The affected lettuce might hit its shelf-life limit soon, but other sources remain unknown. Arnold suspects concurrent outbreaks across different regions and suppliers are driving the national crisis.<\/p>\n So, what should you do?<\/p>\n Avoid bagged salads. Scrub produce. Remove the outer leaves of any fresh greens. It\u2019s not glamorous, but it might save your weekend.<\/p>\n Bagdasarian hopes this chaos forces a change. This isn\u2019t just bad luck. It\u2019s a stress test for a stretched public health system.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have been raising the alarm for months,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n She wants the public to see what happens when the system breaks. If that\u2019s the point, maybe we\u2019re still not learning it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It\u2019s July. You buy salad. You get sick. Again. If you\u2019ve spent any time this summer trying to enjoy leafy greens, you know the drill. Gastrointestinal misery is sweeping through the country, with the Midwest taking the hardest hits. The culprit is Cyclospora, a parasite that lives on fresh produce and causes diarrhea that ranges […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7965,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"wpm_language_slugs":{"cs":"proc-cyklospora-zpusobuje-onemocneni-nyni-pravda-o-letni-epidemii","de":"warum-macht-uns-cyclospora-gerade-jetzt-krank-die-wahrheit-uber-den","en":"why-is-cyclospora-making-us-sick-right-now-the-truth-about-the","es":"por-que-la-cyclospora-nos-enferma-ahora-mismo-la-verdad-sobre-el-brote","fr":"pourquoi-cyclospora-nous-rend-il-malade-en-ce-moment-la-verite-sur","id":"mengapa-cyclospora-membuat-kita-sakit-saat-ini-kebenaran-tentang-wabah","it":"perche-la-cyclospora-ci-fa-ammalare-in-questo-momento-la-verita","nl":"waarom-maakt-cyclospora-ons-momenteel-ziek-de-waarheid-over-de","pl":"dlaczego-cyclospora-powoduje-teraz-choroby-prawda-o-letniej-epidemii","pt":"por-que-a-cyclospora-esta-nos-deixando-doentes-neste-momento-a-verdade","ru-ru":"pochemu-tsiklospora-vyzyvaet-bolezn-imenno-sejchas-pravda-ob-letnej","uk-ua":"koli-pripinjatsja-spalahi-tsiklosporiozu"},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.schooler.org.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7966"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.schooler.org.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.schooler.org.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.schooler.org.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.schooler.org.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7966"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.schooler.org.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7966\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.schooler.org.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.schooler.org.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7966"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.schooler.org.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7966"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.schooler.org.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7966"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}The Michigan Crisis: More Than Just Summer Heat<\/h3>\n
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\n\u2014 Natasha Bagdasarian<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\nIs Cyclosporiasis Ending?<\/h3>\n
The System Is Failing Us<\/h3>\n
More Outbreaks Lurking in the Shadows<\/h3>\n
\n