By Siddhi Mahatole and Julie Steenhuysen
Aug 13 (Reuters) – Michigan, the hardest-hit state in a multistate outbreak of cyclosporiasis, on Thursday reported 13,909 cases linked to the parasitic disease, up roughly 11% over last week, but state officials said the rise largely reflected a processing backlog and the worst may be over.
The CDC on Thursday added two more states, Maine and Massachusetts, to the multistate outbreak linked to icebreg lettuce.
The 17-state outbreak of the parasitic disease, linked to iceberg lettuce, causes explosive diarrhea. It has shaken U.S. consumers nationwide, causing many to forgo eating fresh produce or dining in restaurants.
Lettuce sales plummeted last month, although diners are returning to restaurants, one of a few signs of improvement.
“The data suggests that new cyclosporiasis case reports are slowing,” Laina Stebbins, a Michigan Department of Health and Human Services spokesperson, told Reuters, adding that some of the newly reported cases represented delays at laboratories.
Corewell Health, a non-profit chain of 21 hospitals across Michigan, issued guidance on July 22 saying that due to the current outbreak, it would take eight to 21 days to deliver test results, up from the normal two-to-four-day wait time.
Michigan now believes most of the contaminated produce is no longer available for consumption, Stebbins said.
Dr. Michael Osterholm, an infectious disease expert at the University of Minnesota, said it is important to understand when symptoms first emerged in the new cases.
The disease is especially challenging to trace because it has a two-week incubation period and unlike many other foodborne pathogens, it cannot be traced using the most advanced genetic testing methods.
Michigan previously reported two deaths associated with the outbreak, both occurring in individuals with significant underlying health conditions.
Within Michigan, Wayne County had the highest number of cases at 1,794, followed by Oakland County with 1,344. People aged 30 to 39 accounted for the largest number of cases by age group, with 2,615 infections. The state health department said 314 of those infected were hospitalized.
NATIONAL FALLOUT
Acting U.S. FDA Commissioner Kyle Diamantas tried to assure consumers this week that it was safe to resume eating fresh produce, saying the agency is confident that all iceberg lettuce linked to the multistate outbreak has been removed from the market.
U.S. producer prices for lettuce plunged 73% in July from a month earlier, the steepest decline in more than two decades, labor department data showed on Thursday.
The July collapse reversed sharp price gains recorded in May and June and coincided with a sharp drop in consumer demand for lettuce and menu items containing leafy greens, the data showed. Lettuce producer prices were also down 50.1% from a year earlier.
“Cases may be declining, but not necessarily very quickly because once an outbreak is announced, older cases often start getting reported,” said Martin Wiedmann, Gellert Family Professor in Food Safety at Cornell University.
The fallout has also spread to restaurants, with Taco Bell owner Yum Brands and Chipotle Mexican Grill reporting pressure as diners grew more cautious about ordering menu items containing leafy greens.
Weekly foot traffic at U.S. Taco Bell stores was down 8% in the week of August 3 after dipping nearly 20% in the middle of last month, compared to the weekly average for the first half of the year, according to research firm Placer.ai.
Nationwide, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reported a total of 13,895 laboratory-confirmed cyclosporiasis cases across 47 states in the United States, as of August 11, potentially arising from multiple food sources.
States may report higher case counts than CDC because they may include cases that do not meet CDC’s formal reporting criteria.
POLITICAL FIGHT
The 15-state outbreak has been linked to lettuce supplied by Taylor Farms, and Senator Elizabeth Warren on Thursday pressed Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr to provide a copy of all communications between his agency and Taylor Farms and clarity on the administration’s plan to address the outbreak.
“Political contributions and direct White House lobbying from Taylor Farms, the company implicated in the outbreak, raise urgent questions about the role this influence-peddling may have played in loosening federal food safety oversight and hampering the federal government’s response to the outbreak,” wrote Senator Warren in her letter addressed to Kennedy.
A spokesperson for Taylor said “we categorically reject suggestions that we attempted to receive or received favorable regulatory treatment due to political contributions or other improper influence. Any such allegations are false.”
(Reporting by Siddhi Mahatole and Julie Steenhuysen; additional reporting by Neil J. Kanatt, Mariam Sunny, Dan Burns Savyata Mishra and Sneha S K; Editing by Shailesh Kuber, Peter Henderson and Shinjini Ganguli)
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