{"id":243436,"date":"2026-07-14T21:38:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T21:38:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/243436\/"},"modified":"2026-07-14T21:38:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T21:38:08","slug":"cyclospora-cases-surge-in-pennsylvania-new-jersey-as-diarrhea-causing-parasite-sweeps-nation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/243436\/","title":{"rendered":"Cyclospora cases surge in Pennsylvania, New Jersey as diarrhea-causing parasite sweeps nation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Cases are surging in Pennsylvania and New Jersey as infections from the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/cyclospora-outbreak-foods-to-avoid\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">diarrhea-causing parasite<\/a> continue to sweep the nation.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/han\/php\/notices\/han00531.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">The CDC confirmed that the cyclosporiasis outbreak<\/a> has infected more than 1,600 people nationwide, with more than 5,000 suspected cases, and officials are still searching for the source of the illness.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It is being transmitted through ingestion of the food that is contaminated with the fecal matter either through the water sources or to the food sources,&#8221; Dr. Dana Supe, with Virtua Health, said.<\/p>\n<p>Supe says the intestinal infection is caused by a parasite that&#8217;s commonly found on produce.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It is causing inflammatory changes in the intestines. And this is the reason for this explosive watery diarrhea,&#8221; Supe said.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/cyclosporiasis\/php\/surveillance\/index.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">An updated map from the CDC<\/a> shows the outbreak infecting people in 34 states. Up to 80 people in New Jersey and 30 in Pennsylvania have been reported.<\/p>\n<p>Officials say the numbers are likely much higher because not everyone gets tested, and it can take weeks for the symptoms to show up.<\/p>\n<p>Experts say in addition to antibiotics, fluid hydration is really the best form of treatment. Fortunately, 9% percent of cases have resulted in hospitalization, and there haven&#8217;t been deaths at this point, according to the CDC.<\/p>\n<p>A majority of cases are in Michigan, where health officials are investigating contaminated lettuce as a possible source of the outbreak.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I just buy like headed lettuce things of that nature and I make sure to take the outer layers off and really scrub it down,&#8221; Christian Polusen, a shopper, said.<\/p>\n<p>Officials say cooking or thoroughly washing produce reduces the risk but not completely.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I eat a lot of fruits and vegetables and it&#8217;s not going to stop me so pray for me out there,&#8221; Jaclyn King, another shopper, said.<\/p>\n<p>The illness is most dangerous for babies, the elderly and people who are immune compromised.<\/p>\n<p>On Tuesday, Taco Bell announced it&#8217;s voluntarily removing some ingredients from select restaurants as a precaution that might be linked to the investigation but there is no official link to any.<\/p>\n<p class=\"content__tags__label\">In:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cases are surging in Pennsylvania and New Jersey as infections from the diarrhea-causing parasite continue to sweep the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":243437,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[38393,28,30,29],"class_list":["post-243436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-centers-for-disease-control-and-prevention","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243436","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243436"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243436\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/243437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}