WASHINGTON (TNND) — The number of cases of a dreaded gastrointestinal illness is expected to keep rising as federal health officials work to determine the exact origin of what’s now the largest-ever cyclosporiasis outbreak.
Last week, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said his department had the outbreak “under control” and had identified its source. The Food and Drug Administration said it has been linked to iceberg lettuce sourced from central Mexico by Taylor Farms, but no product sample tests have yielded a confirmed positive result for cyclospora, the parasite that causes cyclosporiasis.
“I don’t think this is fully under control yet,” Former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb said.
May 1 is considered the start of cyclosporiasis season. Since then, the CDC has recorded more than 11,500 confirmed or suspected cases; around this time last year, there were only about 250 cases. Authorities said the iceberg lettuce-linked outbreak has affected nine states: Illinois, Kansas, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and West Virginia.
“There was some event that happened in central Mexico. We don’t know what yet. That led to a lot of fields probably getting contaminated. Some raw sewage got on those fields; maybe it was used for irrigation, probably also climate related,” said Gottlieb, who served during the first Trump administration.
A lettuce sample from Taylor Farms facility in central Mexico came back with a false positive result earlier this month, after the company voluntarily recalled iceberg lettuce products sold in the United States and temporarily suspended production at the facility. Taco Bell also pulled the lettuce from its locations. Still, the FDA advised the public to continue avoiding the recalled products.
“(T)his false-positive lab sample DOES NOT change the basis for FDA’s ongoing outbreak investigation or the overwhelming epidemiological data supporting the current voluntary recall by Taylor Farms. FDA’s traceback investigation and outbreak data continue to converge on shredded iceberg lettuce from Taylor Farms from growers in central Mexico,” the FDA said.
Individuals can contract cyclosporiasis when they ingest something contaminated with cyclospora, which is found in human feces. According to the CDC, symptoms can present as soon as two days or as late as two weeks after infection and include episodes of severe gastrointestinal distress, nausea, loss of appetite, bloating, weight loss and fatigue.
Gottlieb said the true number of cases is probably 10 to 20 times higher than what has been reported because many who have been infected are asymptomatic, have only mild symptoms or do not get tested. According to the CDC, a diagnosis is made after testing a patient’s stool, in some cases, multiple times. It can take up to six weeks for health officials to determine if a cyclosporiasis case is part of the outbreak in question.