Cyclosporiasis has sickened more than 18,000 people in 2026, marking the largest outbreak of the parasitic infection in history, according to a July 29 CDC update.
Three updates:
1. The CDC has confirmed 7,725 cyclosporiasis cases and 465 hospitalizations across XX states since mid-May. Of these, 6,707 cases were domestic and 1,018 were tied to overseas travel. The agency said it is also aware of more than 11,500 additional domestically acquired cases still undergoing lab confirmation, concentrated mostly in Michigan and Ohio.
2. Michigan has reported 10,773 total cyclosporiasis cases as of July 30, including 193 hospitalizations, according to the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. The state’s July 27 total included about 475 cases that had not been previously reported due to delayed lab processing. Meanwhile, Ohio has logged 4,013 cyclosporiasis cases so far this year, according to the Ohio Department of Health.
3. Michael Osterholm, PhD, director of the Minneapolis-based University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, scrutinized the outbreak response in a July 30 episode of the “Osterholm Update” podcast. Dr. Osterholm said health officials have repeated mistakes he warned about in a 1997 New England Journal of Medicine editorial following a multistate cyclosporiasis outbreak the year prior. In part, he called for stronger criteria for evaluating outbreak data before public announcements. He said that lesson went unheeded this year: The CDC did not issue a Health Alert Network notice until July 14, roughly six weeks after investigators began working the outbreak.
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