<\/p>\n
Cyclosporiasis, an intestinal illness caused by the parasite cyclospora, is spread through contaminated food and water.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Littleny\/TNS<\/p>\n
This week, The Dallas Morning News sat down with Dr. Philip Huang, the Dallas County health director, to talk all things cyclospora.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Cyclospora is a diarrhea-causing parasite that people can pick up from contaminated food or water. In the U.S., cases typically originate from contaminated produce. The current outbreak centered in the Midwest has been\u00a0connected to a particular supplier of lettuce<\/a>.<\/p>\n Here are some fast facts about cyclospora\u00a0from a conversation with Huang, who has decades of experience working in a variety of public health roles.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Cyclospora cases happen every year<\/p>\n Huang\u00a0worked on the\u00a0first known outbreak of cyclosporiasis<\/a> in the U.S. while with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That was in 1990 in the Chicago area.<\/p>\n Now, the U.S. sees cyclospora cases every year. Cases typically pop up from May through August, Huang said. Dallas County had 21 confirmed cases last year, Huang said, and 18 the year before that.<\/p>\n With several weeks still left in the cyclospora season, Huang said, Dallas County so far has 18 confirmed cases and an additional 16 possible cases. That\u2019s more than in previous years, but still not an alarming number.<\/p>\n Even Texas\u2019 statewide count \u2014 98 confirmed cases<\/a> as of July 20 \u2014 still pales in comparison to the thousands of cases in Michigan and Ohio.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n You can\u2019t see\u00a0cyclospora, but you can still protect yourself<\/p>\n Cyclospora is a microscopic parasite. That means you can\u2019t see it on produce and, Huang said, there\u2019s no other way to just look at a piece of produce and tell if it\u2019s contaminated with cyclospora.<\/p>\n But there are still ways to protect yourself if you\u2019re worried about coming into contact with the parasite. The best protection<\/a> is to cook produce to at least 158 degrees Fahrenheit. Washing produce thoroughly and other general hand and surface washing is helpful,\u00a0Huang said. But washing alone cannot guarantee the removal of cyclospora.<\/p>\n In addition, produce that can be peeled \u2014 such as bananas and oranges \u2014 or that has a rind \u2014 such as melon \u2014 is typically safer.\u00a0<\/p>\n Just be sure, Huang said, that you wash any outer part of the produce before cutting into it. That will help ensure the knife doesn\u2019t carry anything from the peel or rind into the edible fruit itself.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Cyclosporiasis can last months if it\u2019s not treated<\/p>\n Cyclosporiasis, with its diarrhea-inducing side effects, can be treated with a course of antibiotics. People may also recover without treatment but, Huang warned, symptoms can last weeks or months if the illness is not treated.<\/p>\n Untreated patients also might experience what feels like a recurrence of the illness: a waning of their symptoms, followed by a resurgence.<\/p>\n If you have cyclosporiasis symptoms \u2014 most notably, watery diarrhea, particularly if it lasts for more than a couple days \u2014 you should see your medical provider. A stool test can determine if you have the parasite or not.<\/p>\n How long can the parasite live in your body?<\/p>\n Once symptoms fully resolve, whether with treatment or not,\u00a0cyclospora no longer lives in a person\u2019s body, Huang said.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n That means that those who have had and recovered from cyclosporiasis do not have the parasite inside them anymore.<\/p>\n Texans don\u2019t need to be overly worried about the parasite<\/p>\n Some of the\u00a0cyclospora outbreaks seen in other states are notable and concerning, Huang said.<\/p>\n The state of Michigan reported more than 7,600 cases<\/a> by July 23, and Ohio had reported more than 2,000<\/a>.<\/p>\n But in Texas, the case count is so far not drastically higher than it\u2019s been in prior years. Because of that, Huang doesn\u2019t see a reason for Texans to be overly concerned.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Texans should follow safe food handling practices and should avoid eating recalled foods. Besides that, the Texas cyclospora season doesn\u2019t appear to pose any more danger to residents than it has in years past.<\/p>\n For more of Dr. Huang’s perspective on cyclospora, watch The Dallas Morning News\u2019\u00a0video interview at\u00a0this link.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cyclosporiasis, an intestinal illness caused by the parasite cyclospora, is spread through contaminated food and water.\u00a0 Littleny\/TNS This…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":385163,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[102,104,103],"class_list":["post-385162","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385162","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=385162"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385162\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/385163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=385162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=385162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=385162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}