One person hospitalized in cyclosporiasis outbreak

By MEGAN TROTTER
TribLive

Allegheny County Health Department officials say one person has been hospitalized with cyclosporiasis, a parasitic-driven intestinal disease, and a common source of the cases remains unknown.

Dr. Iulia Vann, director of the Allegheny County Health Department, gave an update on the outbreak at the county’s Board of Health meeting on Wednesday.

Earlier this week, the health department announced that the nationwide outbreak of diarrhea-causing parasite infections had reached the county. So far, there have been 11 confirmed cases of cyclosporiasis and one hospitalization.

“We know that this is a continuous outbreak investigation, so all of this information is changing very quickly, and everybody is working as fast as they can for numbers to be updated,” Vann said.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention classifies cyclosporiasis as a usually non-life-threatening intestinal disease caused by the parasite Cyclospora.

Symptoms of the illness include watery diarrhea, frequent and sometimes “explosive” bowel movements, abdominal cramping, vomiting, nausea and fatigue.

People get infected with Cyclospora by eating food or drinking water contaminated with the parasite.

It is not spread directly from person to person.

Vann said that as of Wednesday, the CDC website’s listed number of cases was lagging behind national reports.

“We know that already Michigan has reported over 3,700 cases. However, the CDC website only reports 1,600 for all 35 states,” Vann said. “These numbers are very quickly increasing, and we’re trying to stay ahead of the information here in Allegheny County.”

Onset of illness cyclosporiasis began mid-June to early July, with some sufferers reporting they traveled either internationally or domestically in the United States before getting sick, Vann said.

So far, no epidemiologic links that would explain why the disease spread have been established among the 11 local cases and no single food or exposure source has been identified, Vann said.

Positive specimens are being sent to the state laboratory for typing to identify possible links, she said.

“It’s very difficult right now to identify which products these cases have been exposed to. We know that this illness is being transmitted a lot of times through the fresh produce,” Vann said.

She said Minnesota put out an alert for typical products that have been associated with cyclosporiasis – lettuce or leafy greens bought in bags, cilantro, basil, green onions, raspberries and snow peas.

“They have identified direct linkage, but just to reduce that risk of exposure, we’re also encouraging people to be mindful of that,” Vann said.