{"id":28941,"date":"2026-08-05T20:10:41","date_gmt":"2026-08-05T15:10:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=28941"},"modified":"2026-08-05T20:10:41","modified_gmt":"2026-08-05T15:10:41","slug":"cyclosporiasis-outbreak-has-expanded-to-six-more-states","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=28941","title":{"rendered":"Cyclosporiasis outbreak has expanded to six more states"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/media-cldnry.s-nbcnews.com\/image\/upload\/t_fit_1500w\/rockcms\/2026-08\/260804-iceberg-lettuce-ch-1616-b62da7.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<p id=\"anchor-af3e47\" class=\"body-graf\">A massive cyclosporiasis outbreak linked to shredded iceberg lettuce has expanded to an additional six states, according to a source familiar with the matter. <\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-6f00a1\" class=\"body-graf\">The outbreak, caused by a microscopic parasite found in human feces, is responsible for hundreds of hospitalizations and two deaths since early May. <\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-9de336\" class=\"body-graf\">The newly linked states \u2014 Arkansas, Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire and North Carolina \u2014 join Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania and West Virginia, said the source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services has <a href=\"https:\/\/data.mo.gov\/Health\/Missouri-Communicable-Disease-Report-2026-\/fk75-fa28\/data_preview\" target=\"_blank\">reported 1,095 cases as of Sunday<\/a> \u2014 nearly double the number of cases <a href=\"https:\/\/www.news-leader.com\/story\/news\/health\/2026\/07\/30\/missouri-cyclosporiasis-cases-reach-600\/91097142007\/?gnt-cfr=1&amp;gca-cat=p&amp;gca-uir=false&amp;gca-epti=z111201p001250c001250e005700v111201&amp;gca-ft=9&amp;gca-ds=sophi\" target=\"_blank\">it reported last week<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-212a17\" class=\"body-graf\">The agency\u2019s update marks a significant expansion in the outbreak of cyclosporiasis, a foodborne illness that often leads to watery, sometimes explosive, diarrhea.<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-f177bd\" class=\"body-graf\">The additional states, however, do not necessarily mean the outbreak is continuing to spread, said Dr. Stephen Ostroff, a former acting Food and Drug Administration commissioner. <\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-a2544d\" class=\"body-graf\">The majority of the cases have been traced to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/health\/health-news\/fda-still-investigating-taylor-farms-cyclosporiasis-outbreak-rcna588385\" target=\"_blank\">lettuce at Taco Bell that was supplied by Taylor Farms<\/a> and sourced from central Mexico. Last month, the produce giant <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/health\/health-news\/fda-names-source-cyclosporiasis-outbreak-rcna587899\" target=\"_blank\">issued a voluntary recall of all iceberg lettuce supplied from central Mexico<\/a>, which the company said was distributed to restaurants and retail stores in 27 states. <\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-16492b\" class=\"body-graf\">The FDA hasn\u2019t yet identified other potential sources beyond Taylor Farms. <\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-cba08d\" class=\"body-graf\">The newly linked cases, Ostroff said, may involve people who ate the recalled lettuce weeks ago but were only recently diagnosed and reported to health officials.<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-f5f3ad\" class=\"body-graf\">\u201cWith an incubation period up to two weeks, there should no longer be people newly getting sick from that product,\u201d Ostroff said. \u201cBut it takes a while for people to seek health care after onset, get tested and diagnosed, reported to state health departments and then to CDC.\u201d<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-d43a44\" class=\"body-graf\">\u201cThink of it like solving a jigsaw puzzle,\u201d he added. \u201cYou have all these pieces sitting there, and the longer you work on it, the more likely it is you\u2019ll figure out where each piece fits into the puzzle.\u201d <\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-9b3d62\" class=\"body-graf\">More than 22,000 people have confirmed or suspected cyclosporiasis, and 517 people have been hospitalized in the multistate outbreak, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said late Tuesday. <\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-d83a6e\" class=\"body-graf\">On Monday, health officials in Michigan \u2014 which has the most cyclosporiasis cases \u2014 confirmed the first deaths linked to this outbreak in the United States. Both people had underlying health conditions that may have been affected by the illness and dehydration, the officials said.<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-781c54\" class=\"body-graf\">Ostroff said the key question about the newly added states is when their patients became sick. <\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-c8c03a\" class=\"body-graf\">The recalled Taylor Farms lettuce should no longer be available in the U.S., and its use-by dates ended Aug. 3, Ostroff said. If people were exposed after that, investigators may need to look for another source.<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-10d1d2\" class=\"endmark body-graf\">\u201cWe may have solved the Taylor Farms shredded lettuce piece, but that\u2019s unlikely to explain everything we\u2019re seeing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A massive cyclosporiasis outbreak linked to shredded iceberg lettuce has expanded to an additional six states, according to a source familiar with the matter. The outbreak, caused by a microscopic parasite found in human feces, is responsible for hundreds of hospitalizations and two deaths since early May. The newly linked states \u2014 Arkansas, Iowa, Missouri,&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28942,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/media-cldnry.s-nbcnews.com\/image\/upload\/t_nbcnews-fp-1200-630,f_auto,q_auto:best\/rockcms\/2026-08\/260804-iceberg-lettuce-ch-1616-b62da7.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28941","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pics-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28941","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=28941"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28941\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/28942"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}