Michigan health officials have confirmed the first two deaths linked to the ongoing cyclospora outbreak, a parasitic infection spread through contaminated food or water that can cause severe diarrhoea.<\/p>\n
The two individuals had “significant underlying health conditions that may have been impacted by cyclosporiasis and dehydration”, state health authorities said.<\/p>\n
The foodborne illness has spread to 45 states, with nearly 7,000 laboratory-confirmed cases reported nationwide, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).<\/p>\n
While the outbreak has infected thousands of people, the CDC says deaths from cyclosporiasis are far from common, as it is “not usually life-threatening”. <\/p>\n
Michigan’s health department did not provide further details about those who have died. <\/p>\n
The state is at the epicentre of the current outbreak and its records show more than 11,000 cases and 193 hospitalisations, although many have not been laboratory-confirmed.<\/p>\n
The heat-loving parasite infects the intestines and is transmitted through faecal contamination. <\/p>\n
Past outbreaks have occurred when people consumed fruits or vegetables irrigated with water contaminated by faeces.<\/p>\n
The CDC recommends washing all produce under running water, including those that are labelled as pre-washed. <\/p>\n
But washing alone might not be enough to rid produce of the parasite. Cooking produce to a temperature of at least 70\u00b0C (158 \u00b0F) can kill the parasite, the agency recommends. <\/p>\n
Officials have linked this year’s widespread outbreak to lettuce imported from Taylor Farms in Mexico, a key supplier for many food establishments in the US.<\/p>\n
US fast-food chain Taco Bell said it has removed lettuce from the supplier from its menu. Taylor Farms itself announced a voluntary recall of lettuce sourced from central Mexico.<\/p>\n
UK health officials too have warned about the outbreak following recent cases contracted by returning travellers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Michigan health officials have confirmed the first two deaths linked to the ongoing cyclospora outbreak, a parasitic infection…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":726661,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[84,59,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-726660","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-gb","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/726660","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=726660"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/726660\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/726661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=726660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=726660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=726660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}