Cleaning Produce
While Kentucky is part of a four-state region believed to be potentially tied to one source of the parasite that causes the illness, health officials have yet to pinpoint the cause. That's left many wondering what is safe to eat — with some avoiding lettuce, raspberries, and other foods sometimes linked to Cyclospora.
Taco Bell announced it is pulling certain ingredients from some locations out of caution.
But without a clear source identified, UK infectious disease specialist Dr. Nicholas Van Sickels says — with some asterisks — he believes it's ok to stick with your diet.
"Washing your lettuce, cutting off the base, and using leaves, washing them really well with water before you serve it — same with berries, same with other foods — I think you can still enjoy your diet as you want to, just doing it with those careful measures in place," he says.
When it comes to produce, there is one other suggestion that could be helpful: going local.
"We don't know where it's coming from so local produce that you can wash yourself is one of the things you can control," he says.
As for diagnosing the illness, Van Sickels says it can be a challenge, requiring pricey tests to confirm.
"That's why are likely underestimating the number of cases because the best way to diagnose it is this kind of fancy molecular-based stool test," Van Sickels explains.
While the illness can cause nausea and fatigue, the key signal it could be cyclosporiasis is prolonged diarrhea.
Previous outbreaks have been linked to fresh produce. In 2018, McDonald's removed salads from restaurants in 14 states after federal health officials linked them to dozens of cases of cyclosporiasis, and tainted lettuce imported from Mexico was suspected to have sickened 400 people in the U.S. in 2013, according to NPR.
Also important to note: Cyclosporiasis is an intestinal illness that is not transmitted person to person.
Tracking the Outbreak
Kentucky, Ohio, Michigan, and West Virginia could share a link when it comes to the larger-than-usual outbreak of the microscopic parasite, which has led to roughly 5,000 infections spanning at least 34 states.
Gwen Biggerstaff is deputy director of the CDC's Division of Foodborne, Waterborne, and Environmental Diseases. She said Tuesday that the multi-state cluster may or may not be the key to singling out a source for the wider outbreak.
"Evidence that we have right now... indicates that those cases may be linked as one multi-state outbreak. But as you see when you look across that and the other updates we've shared today, there are a lot of cases that are not accounted for as part of that multi-state outbreak, and there are a number of other investigations that are going on, some single-state investigations as well as investigations for the cases that are not currently linked to a cluster outbreak," she said.
Kentucky is currently investigating 100 reported cases with more than 60 confirmed so far.
The CDC and FDA are not confirming what kinds of food or produce might be the culprit.