Overview
- Federal counts put confirmed U.S. cases near 18,000–19,000 with about 990 hospitalizations and two deaths, and state labs still have thousands of suspected infections awaiting confirmation.
- The FDA traced the largest multistate cluster to shredded and iceberg lettuce supplied by Taylor Farms de Mexico and served at Taco Bell, leading to recalls and a temporary suspension of implicated product lines.
- Michigan has borne the brunt of the outbreak, reporting about 14,700 cases and hundreds of hospital stays that strained local health departments and forced staff to divert from routine duties to interview patients.
- Investigations remain active for at least six other unlinked clusters because Cyclospora’s long incubation, specialized stool testing, limited genomic tools and lab backlogs make source confirmation slow and difficult.
- Public health experts say recent federal staffing and surveillance cuts hampered response capacity while HHS and FDA dispute that claim, and hundreds of patients have filed lawsuits seeking damages from Taco Bell and Taylor Farms.