A stomach parasite spread by feces on fresh produce has now sickened people in 41 states, federal health officials said - five days after the FDA pulled back the only lab test linking the outbreak to the lettuce it recalled.
Cyclospora cayetanensis oocysts in a stool sample, in an undated file image. CDC via The Epoch TimesThe Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said July 21 it has confirmed 4,173 domestic cases of cyclosporiasis since May 1 and is tracking more than 7,400 additional reported cases that labs have not yet confirmed. Many of those came from Michigan and Ohio. The agency has moved to weekly surveillance updates this year because of the increase over the same period in 2025.
The confirmed total is nearly four times the 1,180 cases the agency recorded during all of last season.
Forty-one states have reported cases, up from 34 four days earlier. Alabama, Idaho, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Dakota and Wyoming reported their first cases of the summer this week.
Those cases are not all one outbreak. The CDC says it is investigating multiple separate clusters this summer. The lettuce investigation is one of them, and it covers five states.
Of the confirmed patients nationally, 308 have been hospitalized and none have died. They ranged in age from 2 to 95. Fifty-six percent were female, and the median date of illness onset was June 26.
Taylor Farms, a California-based supplier, recalled iceberg lettuce sourced from central Mexico on July 17 after investigators tied it to illnesses in Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio
