‘Explosive diarrhoea’ outbreak remains a mystery as officials struggle to find sources
Just now
PAUL J. RICHARDS/AFP via Getty Images
Tracking the origin of an outbreak in the US that causes explosive diarrhoea has proved a challenge for public health experts searching for answers about how it started – and how it’s spreading
Cyclosporiasis, a parasitic infection that spreads through contaminated water or food, often during the summer, has now reached 31 states and infected over 3,000 people, according to state health departments. The main symptom of the rarely fatal illness is frequent, watery diarrhoea
Some experts told the BBC that the parasite is notoriously difficult to trace, a task possibly complicated in part by cuts to federal health agencies
“This isn’t like detecting a needle in a haystack. It’s like detecting a microscopic portion of a needle in a haystack,” said Steven Manderach, executive director of the Association of Food and Drug Officials
One reason the parasite is so hard to track is that it takes one to two weeks for people to fall ill after infection, said Jodie Guest, senior vice chair of epidemiology at Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health
With most food-related illnesses, people tend to experience symptoms within a couple of hours, making it easier to find the food that caused them, Guest said
Testing food for the cyclospora parasite is also far more complex than with other pathogens, said Manderach said , executive director of the Association of Food and Drug Officials
The process requires washing large amounts of the potentially tainted foodto remove the cyclospora organisms, reducing the runoff, and then testing it to see if the parasite was present
“You’d have to have truckloads of lettuce to get to that point,” said Manderach, who previously dealt with cyclosporiasis outbreaks as a food-safety official in Iowa
What to know about ‘explosive diarrhoea’ parasite outbreak in US
Given the scale of the US outbreak, public health experts said there were likely multiple points of contamination in the food supply – another factor complicating investigations
Michigan is hardest hit, with over 2,600 cases, followed by New York state. Health officials have advised the public to thoroughly wash produce, avoid certain fruits like raspberries, and cook vegetables to kill off the pathogen – but they still have not identified its
States scramble to test and track cyclosporiasis cases
Some public health experts said finding the outbreak’s origins also are complicated by cuts to agencies and programmes within the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)
Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr made a number of budget and staff cuts as a part of billionaire Elon Musk’s efforts to cut costs with his Department of Government Efficiency (Doge)
The federal government reduced the capacity of its Foodborne Diseases Active Surveillance Network (FoodNet), which tracks several pathogens, including cyclospora, salmonella and listeria. FoodNet scaled back monitoring for all but two pathogens last year
“Funding has not kept pace” with re state of Connecticut
Before FoodNet stopped monitoring cyclosporiasis, it gathered data about people who tested positive, and tested food, said Guest, who previously worked at FoodNet
“When we see an outbreak or a cluster or something, we don’t have the data we normally expect to go back to use to help us, and this is one of those consequences,” she said. “You’re starting in the dark.”
The CDC is still working with 3,000 health departments to gather data and it continues to collect data on cyclospora through surveillance sytems other than FoodNet, HHS told the BBC
The department said health funding for foodborne diseases has “remained stable”
In Colorado, which has had 90 cases this year – about the same as past years – the state health department said it received less federal funding and has fewer staff to monitor cases
“While our colleagues at the CDC are working hard to support state partners, we have had to adapt to federal changes,” Hope Shuler, a spokesperson for the state’s public health department, said
The state has continued testing, monitoring and sending data to the CDC, she said
Manderach said that federal agencies in charge of food safety are largely performing to the previous standard despite agency changes during the Trump administration
“While yes, I do think there were challenges early on, most of those seem to have resolved,” he said
Other, more serious health problems like the deadly Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo also have strained repidemiology at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Shortages put the onus on states to take more responsibility for foodborne illnesses, said Nancy Glick of the National Consumers League
“States are doing that now, but they don’t have the re
Interviewing thousands about weeks of meals
Now, epidemiologists are working to interview anyone who tested positive for cyclosporiasis about the food they consumed in the one to two weeks before falling ill, looking backwards to find the source
The goal is to find the common link – a certain product or location where infection occurred – so they can put a stop to the outbreak
The interviews are time-consuming and require lots of reents, experts said
“It is pretty straightforward, but it takes a lot of person power to do it,” Weber said
Meanwhile, Americans are left to take a number of steps to protect themselves and avoid the uncomfortable illness
“At the moment, the list of things that you need to be concerned about is unfortunately quite long, making it feel really hard to control,” Guest said
What to know about ‘explosive diarrhoea’ parasite outbreak in US
Michigan
Health
