As cases of explosive diarrhea continue to rise across the US this summer, health officials are grappling with a longstanding question about the tiny parasite that’s behind all this torment: Just how the heck is poop getting into our food?
The appalling truth about cyclospora is that humans are its lone source. It’s only ever been found in human feces. So if it’s in our food or water, “it doesn’t take a rocket scientist or a microbiologist to overthink this,” said Dr. Mark Moorman, who recently retired as director of the Office of Food Safety at the US Food and Drug Administration. “Humans are the source.”
And here’s another unsettling thing about cyclospora: Investigators have never definitively identified the cause of an outbreak.
Tracking the largest cyclosporiasis outbreak in the US
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