FDA Declares Parasite Gone as Cases Near 25,000
FDA Declares Parasite Gone as Cases Near 25,000
The News
The FDA says the source of the nation's cyclospora outbreak is off store shelves — while the case count keeps climbing.
Acting FDA Commissioner Kyle Diamantas told CNBC this week the agency "remains confident that all iceberg lettuce related to the cyclospora outbreak has been effectively removed from the market," adding that the United States has "the safest food supply in the world" and that "Americans should feel confident in eating fresh produce including leafy greens at this point."
Federal data cited by The Independent on Thursday put the national total at nearly 25,000 cyclosporiasis cases across dozens of states — up, not down. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention normally records up to 1,000 cases in an entire year, according to the American Medical Association figures cited in the same report.
And the culprit has never been nailed down by a lab result. The Daily Mail reported that a positive cyclospora test on a sample of Taylor Farms lettuce turned out to be a false positive, and that no source has been definitively confirmed through a positive pathogen test.
Timeline
The outbreak is first identified and linked to shredded lettuce served at certain Taco Bell locations, according to the Daily Mail. Taco Bell stops using lettuce in its menu items.
Produce supplier Taylor Farms voluntarily recalls iceberg lettuce grown in Mexico that the CDC and FDA said was linked to the outbreak. Later testing shows the positive sample was a false positive, and the company says no further testing of its products has detected the parasite.
Reuters reports Michigan has recorded two deaths in the ongoing outbreak.
Michigan's health department updates its guidance on lettuce and salad greens, telling residents it is acceptable to resume eating leafy greens.
Diamantas gives the CNBC interview. The Department of Health and Human Services posts on X: "Cyclospora: contained, American food: safe."
Cleveland.com reports Cuyahoga County, Ohio, rose by one case this week to 695 — the highest county total in the state — as the FDA says the contaminated lettuce is off the market. The Independent reports cases are still growing in Texas, Florida and Michigan, where the state total is nearing 14,000.
Reactions
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has told reporters the situation is "under control," per The Independent.
Local health officials are less definitive. "We have one clear implicated food, but it doesn't explain everything," Susan Ringler Cerniglia, a spokeswoman for the Washtenaw County Health Department in Michigan, told Reuters.
John Guzewich, who worked on foodborne disease outbreaks at the FDA from 1997 to 2011, told The New York Times the scale of this one is "unprecedented" — the only cyclospora outbreak he is aware of that has killed anyone.
The Independent reported that the government's reassurances drew open skepticism in replies to the HHS post, with one user answering, "Lies lies and more lies."
What's Next
Officials say the national numbers will keep moving regardless of what is on shelves now: it can take up to two weeks after eating contaminated food for symptoms to appear, and there is a built-in delay before cases reach the CDC, according to The Independent.
The sources of several smaller outbreaks remain unidentified, and the FDA's investigation pages list those inquiries as open. Maine recently joined the list of states reporting cases, Legal Insurrection reported.
More
Oversight is part of the story. The Independent reported that the farm at the center of the outbreak had not been inspected by the FDA in seven years.
Reuters reported that the Taylor Farms outbreaks expose the limits of the U.S. ability to police produce coming out of Mexico.
The reassurance campaign lands in a summer of overlapping food scares. CNN reported that federal data suggests this is a particularly bad summer for foodborne illness outbreaks. Separately, salmonella tied to jalapeño peppers has sickened more than 300 people across 27 states, per Legal Insurrection — the outbreak behind Whole Foods pulling jalapeño items this week.
Businesses are eating the fallout even when they are not implicated. Sweetgreen has not been linked to the cyclospora outbreak, but its CEO told CNBC customers are still steering clear of salads: "I didn't think it would last" this long.
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