Health officials are currently theorizing that lettuce and bagged greens are the main vectors for the ongoing cyclospora outbreak. Investigations continue as several key pieces of information remain unknown.
Susan Ringler-Cerniglia is the spokesperson for the Washtenaw County Health Department. She says cyclosporiasis, having a two-day to two-week incubation period, complicates efforts to identify the exact source of the outbreak. She says while there might be a common distributor of the contaminated produce, it’s uncertain whether that’s true for all affected areas.
“One of the things that is tricky in these types of investigations especially if you’re dealing with fresh produce is that they don’t hang around very long. By the time illnesses are happening, sometimes whatever product was impacted is long gone.”
At the time of reporting, the local health department reports 474 cases with 21 hospitalizations in Washtenaw County.
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