This audio is auto-generated. Please let us know if you have feedback.
The summer of Cyclospora may be in the rear-view mirror, but the outbreak’s scale — and what it reveals about vulnerabilities in the American food supply — forebode more risk ahead for restaurants and food manufacturers.
Tens of thousands of Americans have fallen ill with cyclosporiasis, a parasitic illness that causes severe diarrhea and can linger for weeks, since May. The prevalence of infections over the past eight months is about 26 times higher than infection rates in a typical year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The agency measured up to 31,000 cases as of the end of August, but the true scope could be worse. State health departments, which use less conservative criteria, have recorded even more dramatic case totals — Michigan reported more than 14,500 cases this summer.
All of those illnesses trace back, in some way, to food or water. Thousands of sickened people reported eating at Taco Bell restaurants, and many cases have been linked back to iceberg lettuce distributed by Taylor Farms.
