US declares end of largest recorded cyclosporiasis outbreak

The FDA says contaminated lettuce has been removed from the market after nearly 13,000 linked cases.United States health authorities have officially declared the nation’s largest recorded outbreak of Cyclosporiasis over, after contaminated iceberg lettuce sickened nearly 13,000 people across 21 states.The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on Friday it is confident that all recalled lettuce linked to the outbreak has been removed from the market.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemslist 1 of 3US says more than 1,400 infected by parasitic Cyclospora illness outbreaklist 2 of 3US announces first two deaths from cyclospora outbreak in Michiganlist 3 of 3Erica Schwartz confirmed as new CDC chief amid US agency turmoilend of listThe CDC has recorded 12,883 cases linked to the outbreak, including 570 hospitalisations and two deaths.Symptoms of a Cyclosporiasis infection usually appear about a week after a person eats contaminated food or drinks contaminated water, although they can develop as early as two days or as late as two weeks after exposure.The most common symptom is frequent, watery diarrhoea, but the infection can also cause loss of appetite, weight loss, stomach cramps, bloating, gas, nausea and extreme tiredness.The outbreak was traced to iceberg lettuce sourced from central Mexico by Mexico" class="entity-link entity-organization" data-entity-id="171872" data-entity-type="organization">Taylor Farms de Mexico, which recalled all of its iceberg lettuce from the region on July 17. It initially drew attention to lettuce served at Taco Bell locations, but federal investigators later traced the implicated lettuce to Taylor Farms, which distributes its products to restaurants and retailers across the US.At its peak, more than 1,000 infections were reported in a single day. By August, the CDC said reported infections had fallen to fewer than two per day on average.The outbreak was part of an unprecedented rise in Cyclosporiasis cases nationwide this year. Since May 1, nearly 20,000 laboratory-confirmed cases have been reported in the US, more than 16 times the number recorded during the same period last year. The previous record year was 2019, when about 4,700 illnesses were reported.