The Food and Drug Administration has identified a new outbreak of cyclosporiasis that has sickened at least 72 people, according to an update posted to the agency’s website late Wednesday.
The additional outbreak comes in the midst of the nation’s worst year on record for the intestinal illness, which is caused by a parasite transmitted through food or water contaminated with human feces.
The agency has not yet provided information about the source of the new outbreak or its location. The F.D.A. is currently investigating five other clusters of cyclosporiasis cases, including an ongoing outbreak of at least 1,644 illnesses in Michigan, Ohio, West Virginia, Indiana and Kentucky that has been linked to shredded iceberg lettuce sold by Taylor Farms and grown in central Mexico.
The announcement of a new outbreak means that the F.D.A. has identified a cluster of cases that appear to be connected to a common source — such as the same type of produce or the same event or restaurant, said Frank Yiannas, a food safety expert and former top official at the F.D.A.
The fact that the F.D.A. has listed the 72 cases as a separate outbreak does not necessarily mean that these new cases are entirely unrelated to the larger outbreak centered in Michigan, said Felicia Wu, a professor of food safety, toxicology and risk assessment at Michigan State University.
The agency may have listed the outbreak separately from the one centered in Michigan because they believe it is linked to a different food, or is affecting people in a different part of the country, but it may turn out that the strain of cyclospora is the same as the parasite affecting thousands of people in the Midwest.
While investigators can use genomics to quickly and definitively link food-borne illnesses caused by bacteria, it’s difficult to study the DNA from parasites. So it’s possible investigators don’t yet know whether the different outbreaks are connected. We’re in a “wait-and-see situation,” Dr. Wu said.
On Tuesday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that there were more than 11,000 cases of cyclosporiasis nationwide that were either confirmed or under investigation. Since 2016, the C.D.C. has reported an average of about 2,800 cases per year nationwide.
“This year is a terrible year” for cyclospora, Mr. Yiannas said — adding that the number of cases we’ve seen so far is “unheard of.”
The F.D.A. is currently investigating an unusually large number of food-borne outbreaks — not just those caused by cyclospora, but also salmonella, listeria, E. coli and clostridium botulinum. The agency has 16 active outbreak investigations listed on its website, which may be a record for the number of ongoing investigations at the same time, said Susan Mayne, who led the agency’s Center for Food Safety and Nutrition from 2015 to 2023.
The large number of outbreaks comes after significant staffing losses at the C.D.C. and F.D.A., as well as at state and local public health departments, which are on the front lines of investigating food-borne illnesses. “The C.D.C.-F.D.A. teams working on food-borne illness outbreaks, along with state partners, are trying to do more and more with less and less,” Dr. Mayne said.
The F.D.A. and C.D.C. did not respond to requests for comment.
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