\n<\/p>\n
The maker of a popular laboratory test said the cyclosporiasis outbreak in the US may be slowing. An outbreak of infections from the single-celled parasite has grown to more than 18,000 suspected and confirmed cases in late July, the nation\u2019s largest on record.<\/p>\n
The midwest has been hit particularly hard in the outbreak, where public health officials have linked infections in nine states to iceberg lettuce from Taylor Farms\u2019 Mexico operations. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said people in at least nine states appeared to have connected cases.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m feeling confident we\u2019re heading in that direction, but we need to continue to monitor this as we go forward,\u201d said John Osiecki, vice-president of medical affairs at bioMerieux, the French maker of a panel that tests for 22 gastrointestinal illnesses.<\/p>\n
That confidence comes with one big caveat \u2013 bioMerieux\u2019s data, published as Syndromic Trends, shows a decline in total test positivity, but heightened public awareness has led more people to take the tests. If a large number of people take the tests and have negative results, positivity rates could be pushed down even as the outbreak continues.<\/p>\n
However, Osiecki is hopeful the drop is real, driven by the same public awareness. \u201cI\u2019ve been in a lot of social settings, and I\u2019ve heard people request not to have lettuce just because they\u2019re aware of cyclospora,\u201d said Osiecki.<\/p>\n
By contrast, CDC data takes longer, but is published with a high degree of certainty. The CDC has confirmed 6,707 cases of cyclosporiasis acquired in the US and is waiting on data, including interviews, to confirm 11,500 more cases.<\/p>\n
Data from the test-maker showed illness involving \u201cparasites\u201d peaked in mid-July, with a 15.6% positivity rate. Cyclosporiasis is known to increase in summer months, but this peak is an outlier compared with the past two years. The same week in 2025 had a parasite positivity rate of 2.9%.<\/p>\n
There are a few more caveats about bioMerieux\u2019s data: the panel tests for four parasites, not just cyclospora; Medicare, one of the nation\u2019s largest insurers, only covers the panel for people who are immunosuppressed (the test costs $417); and the tests are more likely to be available in population centers than in rural areas.<\/p>\n
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Sign up to Breaking News US<\/span><\/p>\n Get the most important news as it breaks<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n Whether or not the outbreak is slowing, some food safety researchers have warned it may be larger than currently known. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is investigating several outbreaks, which do not yet have a known cause, and the lettuce was sold in 27 states.<\/p>\n In New Hampshire, not currently considered part of the outbreak, the state\u2019s department of health identified cases of people sickened by Taylor Farms lettuce from Mexico as recently as mid-July, linked to a hospital cafeteria in Keene.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The maker of a popular laboratory test said the cyclosporiasis outbreak in the US may be slowing. An outbreak of infections from the single-celled parasite has grown to more than 18,000 suspected and confirmed cases in late July, the nation\u2019s largest on record. The midwest has been hit particularly hard in the outbreak, where public<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":51564,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[25016,737,6592,4535,153,25107,25108],"class_list":{"0":"post-51563","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-cyclosporiasis","9":"tag-diseases","10":"tag-hopeful","11":"tag-infectious","12":"tag-outbreak","13":"tag-slowing","14":"tag-testmakers"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=51563"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51563\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/51564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=51563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=51563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=51563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}