US outbreak of parasite causing ‘watery diarrhea’ rises to more than 2,800 cases

A microscopic view of the parasite cyclospora cayetanensis oocysts. Photograph: Melanie Moser/CDC/AP View image in fullscreen A microscopic view of the parasite cyclospora cayetanensis oocysts. Photograph: Melanie Moser/CDC/AP US outbreak of parasite causing ‘watery diarrhea’ rises to more than 2,800 cases Outbreak comes a year after Trump administration cut funding for state and local health departments What is cyclosporiasis, the parasitic illness causing ‘explosive’ diarrhea? State health officials in Michigan and Ohio are reporting thousands of cases of cyclosporiasis, a – a parasitic infection that causes “watery diarrhea”, loss of appetite and weight loss. The outbreak of more than 2,800 cases comes a year after the Trump administration cut funding to state and local health departments and reduced the remit of a program dedicated to coordinating information on food borne illness, including of cyclospora. “It’s like putting a puzzle together,” said Barbara Kowalcyk, an associate professor at the George Washington University Milken Institute of Public Health, and director of the university’s Institute for Food Safety and Nutrition Security. “You start taking pieces out of your puzzle – it’s harder to see the whole picture, and that’s what we’ve done. We’ve taken pieces out of the whole puzzle.” In contrast, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported 843 confirmed cases and 1,500 suspected cases of cyclospora across 31 states on Friday. Eighty-six people have been hospitalized, none have died. . The CDC expects the federal case count to rise, in part, because of delays typical in disease investigation. Michigan appears to be especially hard-hit, with health officials reporting 2,640 cases . Over the border, state officials in Ohio are reporting 177 cases . The health departments did not identify a source of the outbreak. The Michigan health department is urging restaurants and commercial kitchens in the south-east to thoroughly wash leafy greens, snow peas, some herbs and raspberries or, ideally, to cook them. Cyclospora has a two-week incubation period, and the CDC assumes a six-week reporting lag between illness onset and receiving a case report. Investigating a disease with a long incubation period is tricky – to find potential links between cases, such as eating at the same restaurant or shopping the same store, epidemiologists interview everyone with a lab-confirmed case. Those interviews often take place two to four weeks after infection, making it difficult for people to recall what they ate. Even with those challenges, Michigan’s chief medical executive Dr Natasha Bagdasarian told the Associated Press : “there is clearly a linked outbreak happening right now.” However, in an era of funding cuts, Kowalcyk said typical delays have likely been exacerbated. “Have the funding cuts to public health impacted the current activities related to the cyclospora outbreak? I think they have,” said Kowalcyk. “If you’re understaffed