WE ASKED A DOCTOR HOW TO PROTECT YOURSELF FROM CYCLOSPORIASIS

The current Cyclospora outbreak, a foodborne illness caused by a parasite that causes explosive diarrhea, has captured widespread attention and raised many questions about the safety of our food. So, we spoke with Sari Eitches, MD, an internal medicine physician, to better understand what’s actually driving this outbreak and what everyday steps can help protect you and your family.

*This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.

Q: How can I make safe choices in the grocery store to reduce the risk of eating food infected with Cyclospora?

Eitches: Monitor the FDA’s outbreak advisory and recall lists and avoid any recalled products. The current recall involves iceberg lettuce sourced from central Mexico. While many types of produce can be contaminated, lettuces and leafy herbs can be particularly difficult to clean because they have a large surface area and lots of crevices.

Q: Once the produce is in the kitchen, what’s the best way to handle and prepare it?

Eitches: Food safety experts recommended washing produce thoroughly under running water before eating, cutting, or cooking it. With firmer produce like cucumbers, you can also scrub with a clean produce brush. Washing can reduce contamination, but unfortunately, it cannot guarantee that Cyclospora has been completely removed.

Cooking food to at least 158 degrees kills Cyclospora and many other potential pathogens, so immunocompromised or vulnerable people may feel safest sticking with cooked greens (like steamed spinach and sautéed kale) during an active outbreak.

To reduce the risk of foodborne illness, wash your hands before and after handling produce, and thoroughly clean kitchen surfaces, cutting boards, and knives.

Q: What should I do if I think I may have cyclosporiasis?

Eitches: If you are experiencing watery diarrhea that lasts longer than three days, keeps recurring, or is accompanied by symptoms of dehydration, such as lightheadedness, call your doctor. People who are immunocompromised, elderly, pregnant, or medically vulnerable should reach out sooner.

It is important to ask about the possibility of Cyclospora, since your healthcare provider can order a specific stool test to diagnose you. While this infection can cause serious and prolonged symptoms, it is very treatable with a specific antibiotic, trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole, commonly known by the brand name Bactrim.

Q: What are some of the biggest misconceptions about the current outbreak?

Eitches: One misconception is about how the infection spreads. Unlike norovirus and most other forms of infectious gastroenteritis, it does not typically spread within close contacts or households. The Cyclospora oocyst is shed in stool, but to become infectious to the next person, it must mature outside the body for at least 1 to 2 weeks.

This is why outbreaks are generally linked to food or water contaminated in the environment, rather than to one sick person immediately passing it to another. If several people in one household develop cyclosporiasis, it is more likely that they ate the same contaminated food, not that they infected one another.

Another misconception is that one identified lettuce source explains every Cyclospora case across the country. Public health officials are investigating multiple clusters, and the iceberg lettuce-associated outbreak represents only a portion of the cases under review.

Read the original article on Verywell Health

2026-08-04T21:48:20Z