Cyclospora Outbreak: 7,000 Sick and the Surveillance System That Went Dark | Episode 177

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Nearly 7,000 people are sick, the CDC's own case count can't keep up with what individual states are finding on their own, and six months ago the agency quietly stopped requiring labs to track Cyclospora at all. 

In this episode of Don’t Eat Poop!, our hosts Matt and Francine break down how an outbreak this size is unfolding in near-total darkness. This episode covers what Cyclospora actually does to the body, where the current outbreak started, and the funding cuts that gutted the surveillance system meant to catch it. 

When you stop counting the sick, the numbers go down, but the problem doesn't.

In this episode:

00:00:00 The Educated Food Safety Guess That Turned Out to Be True

00:04:46 A Food Safety Project Three Years in the Making

00:08:04 Tracking the Cyclospora Outbreak

00:12:27 What Is Cyclospora? Symptoms, Transmission, and Sources

00:17:53 1,645 Confirmed Cyclospora Cases and Nearly 7,000 Suspected

00:19:03 Suspected Sources and the Taco Bell Connection

00:23:49 CDC Funding Cuts and the FoodNet Tracking Rollback

00:28:28 How a Systemic Contamination Event Actually Happens

00:35:29 The Supplier is Confirmed — It's Taylor Farms

00:47:02 Taco Bell's Statement and IFPA's Pushback on the Produce Link

Disclaimer: Episode title and content do not constitute legal or health advice.

Resources from this episode

Have a look at the articles mentioned in this episode:

• Two Friends Warn About Cyclospora. In the Morning I’ll Carry the Same Message to Puerto Vallarta: We Stopped Counting the Sick and Holding those to Account
• Cyclospora by State: Three Different Counts — the CDC’s, the State’s, and the Media’s
• CDC, FDA link Taco Bell lettuce supplier to multistate cyclosporiasis outbreak
• The Cyclospora Outbreak Now Has Two Names on It — Taylor Farms and Taco Bell. Both Have Been Here Before and So Have I
• Parasitic Outbreak Linked to Taylor Farms Lettuce Supplied to Taco Bell

Noteworthy quotes from this episode

“When you have 7,000 potential cases, it is a systemic problem.” – Matt Regusci

“Of course the numbers are gonna decline. They're not counting them.” – Francine L Shaw

We hope you enjoy this episode!

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