Overview
- Federal data show 4,173 laboratory‑confirmed cyclosporiasis cases and more than 7,400 suspected cases under review, while Michigan reports about 7,664 confirmed cases with 160 hospitalizations as of July 23.
- The FDA announced a new traceback this week for a separate cluster of 72 illnesses as investigators pursue multiple active outbreak probes across the country.
- Epidemiology and tracebacks have linked a large multistate cluster to shredded iceberg lettuce supplied by Taylor Farms de Mexico, and the company issued voluntary removals even though an earlier FDA lettuce test was later ruled a false positive.
- Public‑health teams face limits on lab confirmation because Cyclospora cannot be cultured, yields low DNA for genetic tests, and takes days in the environment to become infectious, forcing reliance on long interviews, receipts and supply‑chain records.
- Patients can be sick for weeks and the standard antibiotic is trimethoprim‑sulfamethoxazole; the outbreak has prompted restaurant and retailer removals, recalls, mounting medical bills and early lawsuits while investigations continue through the peak season into August.