According to the latest update posted Tuesday, as of Aug. 10, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) had been notified of 457 ill persons with confirmed Cyclospora infection from 29 states so far this year. That’s 73 more people and two additional states since the previous CDC update one week ago.
These 275 persons were from the following 22 states: Arkansas (2), California (2), Connecticut (3), Florida (11), Georgia (22), Illinois (6), Iowa (1), Kansas (2), Maryland (1), Massachusetts (9), Michigan (2), Missouri (1), Montana (3), Nebraska (1), New Jersey (6), New Mexico (1), New York (excluding NYC) (8), New York City (21), Texas (157), Utah (1), Virginia (3), Washington (2), and Wisconsin (10).
CDC’s Aug. 11 update states that clusters of illness linked to restaurants or events have been identified in Texas (157 cases, according to CDC; 237 cases, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services), Wisconsin (10), and Georgia (22). CDC added that cluster investigations are ongoing in Texas and Georgia.
Cluster investigations in Wisconsin and Texas have preliminarily identified cilantro as a suspect vehicle, the CDC update stated. Previous U.S. outbreaks of cyclosporiasis have been linked to imported fresh produce, including cilantro from the Puebla region of Mexico.
According to a public health notice issued Saturday, Aug. 8, 2015, the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) is collaborating with provincial public health partners, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, and Health Canada in investigating 83 cases of Cyclospora infection in Ontario, British Columbia, Alberta, and Quebec.
However, PHAC did not specify one single food item as the possible source of this outbreak.
“Although the source of the outbreak has not been identified, past outbreaks have been associated with imported fresh produce, including pre-packaged salad mix, basil, cilantro, berries, mesclun lettuce and snow peas,” the Canadian agency stated.
