A multistate cyclospora outbreak is testing a foodborne-illness surveillance system that federal officials narrowed just before it would have been useful.
NBC News reported that cyclosporiasis cases have climbed sharply in Michigan, where the state had recorded 1,562 cases as of Friday. Dr. Natasha Bagdasarian, Michigan’s chief medical executive, told NBC News the increase was “highly unusual.” Michigan typically sees 40 to 50 cases in a year, she said, and state labs are trying to sequence the parasite’s genome to work out where it came from.
Cases have also been reported in Ohio, Colorado, Illinois, New York, North Carolina, Texas, Wisconsin and other states, according to NBC News. That turns a nasty gastrointestinal problem into a public-health tracing problem: if the same contaminated product crossed state lines, investigators need enough data to connect cases before the trail goes cold.
What cyclospora does
Cyclosporiasis is caused by cyclospora, a microscopic parasite tied most often to fresh produce, NBC News reported. Previous outbreaks have involved raspberries, bagged lettuce or salads, cilantro and basil. NBC News said waterborne spread is possible but uncommon.
People usually become ill about a week after exposure, according to NBC News. Symptoms can start like the flu, with fatigue and body aches, then move into watery diarrhea that can be severe and sometimes uncontrollable. People may also have gas, cramps, nausea and appetite loss. NBC News reported that about 10% of cases lead to hospitalization, with young children and older adults at higher risk.
What changed at FoodNet
The surveillance gap comes from a July 1 change to the Foodborne Diseases Active Surveillance Network, better known as FoodNet. The CDC describes FoodNet as a partnership between federal agencies and 10 states that tracks foodborne infections.
A CDC spokesperson told NBC News that, as of July 1, FoodNet reduced required surveillance to two pathogens: salmonella and Shiga toxin-producing E. coli. Before that change, participating states also tracked six others: campylobacter, cyclospora, listeria, shigella, vibrio and Yersinia.
States in the network may still run their own surveillance for those pathogens, NBC News reported, but they are no longer required to do so through FoodNet. New York and Colorado are the participating FoodNet states among those currently reporting cyclospora concerns, according to the reporting cited by NBC News.
That distinction matters. FoodNet’s job is not to magically find the contaminated basil in your fridge. It gives health departments a structured way to compare signals across jurisdictions. Removing cyclospora from required tracking means more of that work falls to state labs and investigators, precisely when Michigan says it is scrambling to sequence samples.
The Food and Drug Administration told USA Today that it is investigating cyclospora outbreaks “using established epidemiologic, laboratory and traceback tools in close coordination with CDC and state and local partners.” The FDA attributed that work to the leadership of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
That statement confirms an investigation is underway. It does not undo the narrower FoodNet requirement, and it does not explain why cyclospora surveillance was dropped from the program before an outbreak that now spans multiple states.
This story draws on original reporting from Techdirt.