Cases of parasitic diarrhea are spiking in Missouri.
More than 200 positive cases of cyclosporiasis, caused by a parasite linked so far largely to lettuce, have now been reported to Missouri state health officials, according to case counts released Sunday.
The updated total of 216 cases marks more than a 400% increase from the 43 cases the department had clocked as of July 12.
It’s also well above the typical 15-count caseload for this stretch of the infection season, Nathan Koffarnus, an epidemiologist at Missouri’s Department of Health and Senior Services, said in a Thursday briefing with reporters.
Boone County had confirmed 37 cases as of Monday morning, up from 13 last week, said Austin Krohn, Columbia/Boone County Public Health and Human Services Department public information specialist.
In St. Louis County, officials had logged 32 cyclosporiasis cases by Thursday since the end of June, and some remain under investigation, said Sara Dayley, public information manager for the county’s department of public health.
“About half our cases have had recent travel to Mexico, and no local ‘source’ or common exposure has been identified yet in our domestically acquired cases,” Dayley said in a statement.
Since early May, health officials across the nation have confirmed or are investigating nearly 7,000 cases of cyclosporiasis, according to data published last week by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
At least 141 hospitalizations have been linked to infection, but no deaths have been reported.
More recently, the CDC and the Food and Drug Administration attributed the largest regional cluster to shredded iceberg lettuce served at Taco Bell restaurants in Michigan, Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio and West Virginia. Cyclosporiasis infections have especially preoccupied Michigan health officials, who have tallied more than 4,300 cases so far.
In Missouri, epidemiologist Koffarnus said none of the state’s cases had yet been linked to the outbreak in Michigan or other states. And unlike the tight clusters that typically point investigators to a single contaminated product, Missouri’s cases are scattered across the state.
Koffarnus attributed that dispersed pattern in part to heightened testing and media attention. People who might otherwise have waited out their symptoms at home, he said, are now “more likely to seek out medical care,” and their doctors “more likely to order tests.”
“That doesn’t mean that we don’t have a problem,” Koffarnus said, though he framed state officials’ attention toward cyclosporiasis as one of “concern,” rather than “panic.”
To kill cyclospora, cook fresh vegetables thoroughly. Rinsing produce may not fully remove the parasite.