Parasite sickens 250 in Midwest; fresh produce suspected

http://www.nbcnews.com/health/parasite-sickens-250-midwest-fresh-produce-suspected-6C10709186

July 22, 2013

At least 250 people have been sickened, mostly in the Midwest, by a rare parasite that may have contaminated fresh produce shipped across state lines, said federal health officials, who’ve stepped in to help coordinate the growing outbreak.

At least 118 cases of Cyclospora infection have been reported in Iowa, another 65 in Texas and 63 in Nebraska, state officials said. Four more cases also have been reported in Wisconsin and one in Illinois. At least eight people have been hospitalized, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Monday.

So far, there’s no clear source for the illnesses, which were reported from mid-June through July, said Dr. Barbara Herwaldt, a medical epidemiologist with the CDC’s division of parasitic diseases and malaria centers.

“Nothing has been implicated yet in a formal sense,” Herwaldt said. “No food item has been identified as the source of the outbreak.”

But officials in Nebraska and other states suggest that fresh vegetables may be the source, based on interviews with people who got sick. Tainted produce could have been shipped across state lines, accounting for the illnesses in multiple states, Herwaldt said. More than one food source could be behind the outbreak and contaminated water used in growing practices could be a culprit.

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