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Chandler physician and IntraCare President Dr. Andrew Carroll warns against a social media trend joking about using Cyclospora for weight loss as local cases reach 36
PHOENIX -A new wave of the Cyclospora outbreak linked to iceberg lettuce has hit nine states, bringing the total number of cases of the stomach parasite to more than 4,000 spread across 41 states
Arizona health officials have confirmed 36 local cases, but say they are not linked to the nationwide outbreak. Still, officials urge caution, especially as a joke trending on social media surrounds one of the main side effects
Scrolling through social media, people have likely come across videos of individuals talking about wanting the dangerous parasite just to lose weight
“Getting any kind of illness to purposely cause something like that is just a bad idea,” said Chandler physician and IntraCare President Dr. Andrew Carroll. “Plus, Cyclosporiasis can be deadly. There are folks ending up in the hospital for long periods of time.”
“Cyclospora skinny” or “diarrhea diet” — whatever people want to call it, doctors call it extremely dangerous
“With diarrhea, if you’re not able to control that part of it, you’re going to lose a lot of electrolytes, so you’re going to have problems with muscle cramps and headaches and all those sorts of things,” Carroll said. “But dehydration, and we’re really aware of dehydration in this state, you don’t want to get to the state where your heart just can’t pump enough blood because there is no water in there.”
Dig deeper:
Even jokes on social media can carry real consequences
“People who are influencers on social media, a lot of people listen to them,” Carroll said. “There’s millions of followers for these people and even the most off-colored comment, or I meant to be funny, could be considered something serious. Especially to someone who might be dealing and struggling with their weight, they might think ‘Hey, it might be a good idea,’ and it’s never a good idea.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says from May 1 to July 20, there have been 308 hospitalizations across 41 states reporting cases. No deaths have been reported
As for Arizona’s 36 cases, officials have not pinned down a single local source
Cyclospora skinny: The new diet craze?
A new diet ‘trend’ has health officials sounding the alarm, as some online users claim they are turning to the ongoing cyclosporiasis outbreak to shed a few pounds
“As far as we know, in our state, we haven’t had any foci of outbreak so we can’t say it’s this restaurant or this grocery store was the cause of an outbreak,” Carroll said
State health officials say a majority of Arizona’s cases are associated with international travel and the number of cases are within the normal range of yearly case counts. But Carroll warns that could be a false sense of security
“I don’t believe there’s been enough reporting in our state to really study and know that there has not been an outbreak here,” Carroll said
What’s next:
Meanwhile, federal investigators are still searching for the root cause of the two recent outbreaks
What you can do:
Until aing vegetables to stay safe and to not eat any recalled lettuce
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