Hurtling diarrhea.
It’s back, and it’s angry.
The CDC confirms over a thousand cases of cyclosporosiss across the US right now. Two hundred people landed in the hospital from seventeen states. Just severe stomach pain, dehydration, the usual messy aftermath. Michigan is getting wrecked specifically. 1,251 reported cases there alone by early July. The state’s Department of Health calls it their biggest outbreak ever.
What even is this thing?
Cyclospora cayetanensis. A tiny protozoan. It hides in food. It hides in water. You swallow it, it marches straight for your small intestine. Invades the gut lining. Causes inflammation. The result? Explosive watery diarrhea that won’t quit. Symptoms wait a week to show up. They can stick around for months if you skip antibiotics. The illness likes to play games. It vanishes for a few days. Then it comes right back.
Not usually fatal.
But it’s dangerous. Young kids get dehydrated fast. Older adults too. Immune-compromised people face serious risk. Rarely, the parasite blocks bile flow. Liver issues follow. Digestion grinds to a halt.
We don’t have a single national culprit yet. No one food item is definitively the source for every state. But patterns emerge. Clusters appear. Mexican-style restaurants show up again. Grocery chains too. Even one catered event linked to the spread. The FDA is looking hard at white and green onions. Cucumbers. Cilantro. Trace-back investigations are underway.
Michigan health officials warn us based on past trends. Raspberries are often the suspect. Basil too. Bagged salad greens. Fresh produce carries the parasite in contaminated water from where it’s grown.
Spring and summer are its happy times. May through August is called cyclosporosisis season. But this isn’t a normal year. Michigan usually sees about 50 cases a full calendar year. Now they’ve passed a thousand in weeks. Something is off.
Tracking these bugs is frustrating. Unlike E. coli or Salmonella, you can’t easily fingerprint them. The parasite reproduces sexually. Genetic material shuffles with each generation. DNA signatures don’t match perfectly across clusters. It makes source tracking nearly impossible sometimes.
So how do they know it’s an outbreak?
There is clearly a linked outbreak happening.
That’s the reality check from Michigan’s chief medical executive. The data clusters tightly. Even if the genetics hide the link, the timeline and symptoms don’t lie. Wash your cilantro thoroughly. Maybe avoid raw greens if you’re immune-compromised. Or just hope you don’t get hit this week. The summer isn’t over. The onions aren’t checked yet.
What do we do while we wait for the source to be confirmed?
