The CDC is tracking a summer surge of Cyclospora infections. As of its June 18 surveillance update, CDC has logged 145 cases acquired in the United States across 17 states, with illness onsets from May 1 through June 16. Twenty people have been hospitalized; no deaths have been reported. None of the patients traveled abroad beforehand — so the CDC and FDA are hunting for a domestic food source.
New York is the hardest-hit state in that count. One caveat worth stating plainly: the widely-quoted “31 to 80 New York cases” figure is not a number CDC published. CDC releases only a national total, a count of states, and a shaded map — the New York figure is a media read of which shading band the state falls into. If you need a hard state number, CDC tells you to ask the state health department directly.
Michigan is the real tell
Michigan is not one of CDC’s 17 states — yet the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services has separately reported 572 cases as of July 4, centered on a Monroe County cluster. Those cases simply haven’t reached CDC’s national pipeline, which runs only through June 16. This isn’t a contradiction; it’s a lag. When Michigan folds in, the national number won’t creep — it will jump. That’s why one outlet says “145 in 17 states” and another says “300 in 18 states”: the larger figure just adds Michigan’s count to CDC’s. Reasonable, but it’s a media aggregation, not an official CDC number.
Almost every U.S. cyclospora outbreak traces to raw fresh produce that never gets a cooking step. FDA and CDC point to raspberries, basil, cilantro, snow and snap peas, mesclun and salad mixes, and bagged salads, salad kits, and vegetable trays. Two things matter for consumers: washing does not remove the parasite, and nothing frozen, cooked, or peeled has ever been implicated. This is a contaminated-water-and-field problem, not a grocery-cooler one.
We’ve seen this before
- 1996 — Guatemalan raspberries: roughly 1,465 cases; the outbreak that established Cyclospora as a foodborne pathogen.
- 2018 — a double outbreak: prepackaged vegetable trays (~250 cases) and fast-food salads (511 cases, 11 states); the full season topped 2,299 cases in 33 states.
- 2019 — a record 4,703 infections.
- 2020 — Fresh Express bagged salads, 1,200-plus cases.
- 2022 — a Florida cluster tied to a Caesar salad kit with bagged romaine.
About Cyclospora
Anyone who has developed symptoms of Cyclospora infection, and has reason to believe they have been exposed to the parasite, should seek medical attention. Specific tests are required and antibiotics are used to fight the parasite.
Cyclospora infection can cause severe abdominal pain, watery diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, body aches, and fatigue. Symptoms can develop between two and 14 days after exposure. Though symptoms can be severe enough to send people to the hospital, it's rare for people to die from Cyclospora infections.
Cyclospora is a type of protozoa, which is a tiny, single-celled organism. It is transmitted when people somehow ingest contaminated feces, typically through contaminated food or water. It can be spread only through human waste, unlike E. coli and salmonella, which can also be spread from animal fecal matter.
Food safety experts say there's no evidence that washing the produce will remove the parasite.
