First Deaths from Cyclospora Reported 

On Monday, federal and state public health officials announced the first confirmed deaths in the U.S. tied to the nationwide outbreak of cyclosporiasis. 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention “is aware of two cyclosporiasis-related deaths in people with underlying health conditions from Michigan as a result of this outbreak,” according to a statement posted on the agency’s website on Monday. “CDC will update its website to include laboratory confirmed cases, hospitalizations and deaths.”

Food contamination linked to the microscopic parasite typically occurs between late spring and into the summer. But this year’s ongoing outbreak has been anything but typical, with the CDC reporting more than 6,700 domestically acquired, lab-confirmed cases since May 1 and another 11,500 suspected cases under investigation. 

The agency also reports 1,947 confirmed illnesses from the parasite across nine states. 

Nevertheless, the CDC’s official number of sickened patients hasn’t changed since July 24, and doesn’t include cases occurring in people who may have gotten ill while traveling internationally. The source of the outbreak, which covers 45 states, is still unidentified. 

Illnesses Began In May

Meanwhile, Michigan officials say medical records show the people who died had “significant underlying health conditions” that may have been impacted by cyclosporiasis and dehydration. 

The larger outbreak involves patients in Michigan and northern Ohio. Several other states have numbers in the hundreds and the count is still growing. 

A smaller outbreak is tearing through nine states: Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. Investigators found that many of those who fell ill had eaten at Taco Bell restaurants that used lettuce from Taylor Farms de Mexico as an ingredient.

The commercial produce giant has been identified as the most likely source of the outbreak. It voluntarily recalled the lettuce effective July 17, but the investigation reveals that the illnesses began as early as May 1. 

FoodNet Cut Last Year

The people who died had fallen ill before the Food and Drug Administration announced the voluntary recall. Michigan’s health department reports that as of July 30, a total of 11,234 residents have been sickened, and 193 people had been hospitalized. 

Cyclospora is a microscopic parasite that usually infects people who’ve eaten contaminated produce irrigated with feces-laden water. The bug typically causes flu-like symptoms like fatigue and nausea as well as “frequent and sometimes explosive bowel movements.” Infection rarely results in death. 

The illness is detected using a specific test and patients need an antibiotic to fight the parasite.

The Foodborne Diseases Active Surveillance Network called FoodNet — a collaboration between the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Department of Agriculture, the Food and Drug Administration and state health departments created in 1995 — made surveillance of cyclospora optional in 2025. 

The 30-year-old system had actively monitored infections caused by eight pathogens but last year restricted active monitoring to salmonella and E.coli. The CDC says it continues to monitor “laboratory-confirmed cases of cyclosporiasis year-round to detect outbreaks linked to a common food source in the United States.”

In April, consumer advocates and representatives of the food industry asked congressional leaders to increase funding for FoodNet and other critical food safety programs at the CDC. 

Unanswered Questions

Bill Marler, a food safety expert and liability attorney, believes it’s quite likely that the official government reports of cyclosporiasis illnesses are missing thousands of cases, a gap that raises several questions.

“Fifty state health departments report 22,181 cyclosporiasis cases this summer,” says Marler. “Subtract the federal outbreak count from what the states report, and you get over 20,000 counted illnesses with no confirmed link to anything.” 

Marler also notes that Taylor Farms’ recall covers 28 states, while the biggest outbreak is tied to nine states. That, he says, begs the question of what happened to the lettuce shipped to the other 17 states.

“How many people have died, and how would anybody know?” he said. ”Every federal figure says none until [August 30]. I am not asserting otherwise. I am asking what method produced that number.”

FDA’s own outbreak table notes six Cyclospora investigations this season. 

One of them is tied to the lettuce. But another outbreak announced in late July that involves 93 cases is still not connected to a specific food product or products, and there’s no indication how the agencies will handle the unsolved issues. 

“CDC treats May 1 through August 31 as the cyclosporiasis season,” says Marler. “That leaves thirty days before the illnesses stop and the interest goes with them.”  

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