U.S. declares record cyclospora outbreak linked to lettuce over

U.S. health officials have declared the nation’s largest recorded cyclosporiasis outbreak over after contaminated iceberg lettuce sickened nearly 13,000 people across 21 states, hospitalized hundreds and was linked to two deaths.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday there is no longer a risk of people getting sick from the outbreak and that it is confident all recalled lettuce tied to the illnesses is off the market. The Food and Drug Administration said it will continue investigating infections linked to iceberg lettuce sourced from central Mexico and recalled by Taylor Farms de Mexico.

“FDA will continue to work with federal, state, and international partners to complete its investigation and will provide updates as they become available,” the agency said Friday.

Federal officials have recorded 12,883 cases linked to the outbreak, including 570 hospitalizations and two deaths, according to figures reported by Al Jazeera. CBS News reported that nearly 13,000 cases were tied to the outbreak and that more than 570 people were hospitalized. Michigan was the hardest-hit state, with the most reported cases and the two deaths linked to the outbreak.

The outbreak initially drew attention to lettuce served at Taco Bell, investigators said. Federal officials later focused on Taylor Farms as the source of the iceberg lettuce, and the company recalled lettuce grown in central Mexico. Al Jazeera reported that Taylor Farms de Mexico recalled all of its iceberg lettuce from the region on July 17. CBS News reported the recall involved thousands of packaged salad products that combined iceberg lettuce with other vegetables and were shipped to major U.S. restaurant chains, including Yum Brands, the owner of Taco Bell, Pizza Hut and KFC.

Cyclospora is a microscopic parasite that can cause cyclosporiasis, an intestinal illness marked most commonly by frequent, watery diarrhea. The CDC describes the diarrhea as involving “frequent and sometimes explosive bowel movements.” Symptoms usually appear about a week after a person eats contaminated food or drinks contaminated water, though Al Jazeera reported they can begin as early as two days or as late as two weeks after exposure. Other symptoms can include loss of appetite, weight loss, stomach cramps, bloating, gas, nausea and extreme tiredness.

The parasite spreads through human feces, but officials have not said how enough food became contaminated to sicken so many people. “This contamination can happen if produce is grown in soil or comes into contact with water that has been contaminated,” said Ellen Shumaker, director of outreach for Safe Plates, a North Carolina State University food safety program.

The lettuce outbreak drove an unprecedented surge in cyclosporiasis cases nationwide. Since May 1, U.S. officials have received reports of nearly 20,000 laboratory-confirmed cases, more than 16 times the number reported during the same period last year, along with more than 6,100 suspected cases. The previous worst year for U.S. infections was 2019, when about 4,700 illnesses were reported nationally. Thousands of this year’s cases have not been linked to the lettuce outbreak.

Al Jazeera reported that at the outbreak’s peak, more than 1,000 infections were reported in a single day, and by August the CDC said reported infections had dropped to fewer than two per day on average.

The FDA said Friday it has completed on-site inspections and sample collection at iceberg lettuce growers and a processing facility in Mexico, but laboratory analysis of those samples is still pending.

The outbreak has also renewed scrutiny of U.S. food-safety oversight. CBS News reported that U.S. regulators are conducting fewer international inspections aimed at catching contaminated produce before it reaches American plates. Al Jazeera reported that FDA inspections of foreign food facilities have declined substantially in recent years and cited the Government Accountability Office as saying the agency is supposed to inspect more than 19,000 international food sites annually but reached an all-time high of 1,700 in 2019, less than one-tenth of that target.