Cyclosporiasis cases rose sharply in Michigan and Ohio this week, with Michigan nearing 700 confirmed infections by July 6 and Ohio reaching 177 cases by July 2. The counts place the intestinal infection far above what Michigan normally sees in a year, and health officials are still trying to determine what food or water source is driving the spread.
For Dr. Natasha Bagdasarian, the numbers are a moving target because the illness does not show up right away. She said there is a significant lag between exposure and symptoms, and that it can take about a week, sometimes two weeks, before a person feels sick. That delay makes it harder to know where the parasite is coming from and why the total can keep climbing even after the first warnings go out.
In Michigan, 678 cases had been confirmed in the southeast region of the state, including Wayne County, by July 6. That is far above the state’s usual annual count of about 50 cases, or roughly 13.5 times higher than average. In Ohio, 171 of the 177 cases had been reported since June 20, and the illness had been confirmed across 43 counties by July 2.
The pattern has widened enough to raise concern without yet giving investigators a clean answer. The CDC had reported 145 cyclosporiasis cases in 17 states since May 1, excluding Michigan, as of June 16, and at least 20 people had been hospitalized by then. But health officials said no cases have been linked between Michigan and Ohio, which means the rise in both states does not yet point to one shared outbreak source.
Cyclosporiasis is usually spread through food or water contaminated with feces, and past foodborne outbreaks have been tied to imported fresh produce including raspberries, basil, snow peas, mesclun lettuce and cilantro. Some patients never develop symptoms, while others get explosive watery diarrhea along with cramping, bloating, low-grade fever, nausea and vomiting. Bagdasarian said officials are still working to make sure the public, restaurants and commercial kitchens have guidance on how to handle produce safely while the investigation continues.
The unanswered question now is not whether the outbreak is growing. It is whether investigators can identify the contaminated produce behind Michigan’s surge before more people are added to a count that is already climbing faster than they can pin it down.
