Today's post was shared by CIDRAP and comes from www.cidrap.umn.edu
Arkansas, Florida, Missouri, and New York City have reported their first Cyclospora infections with possible ties to a multistate outbreak, raising the nation's total to as many as 373, according to the latest information from federal and state sources.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in an update today said it had received reports of 353 cases as of Jul 26, but Iowa, Nebraska, and Texas have reported more cases since then.
So far 21 patients from three states have been hospitalized, but no deaths have been reported. The CDC said illness onset dates have ranged from the middle of June to early July.
No food source has been identified yet, but health officials in Iowa—the state reporting the most cases—have said they suspect imported vegetables. Cyclospora is an extremely rare parasite, and past outbreaks have been linked to imported fruit or vegetables.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said in a Jul 26 notice that it, along with the CDC and state and local departments, was investigating the multistate outbreak.
So far it's not clear if cases from all of the states are part of the same outbreak. Some of the cases in Iowa and Nebraska have tentative links to foreign travel, and some of the sick patients in Illinois, Kansas, and Missouri may have become ill after travel to other states that have reported dozens of cases.
The Florida Department of Health (FDH), which reported its first cases on Jul 26, said its epidemiologists are...
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