Exploding cyclosporiasis outbreak

Since the U.S. federal government is of little help in providing information about the diarrhea outbreak spreading through contaminated food, epidemiologist Katelyn Jetelina ran through the known facts.

This outbreak, the largest in U.S. history, has topped 3,000 cases, and it’s not slowing down. That number comes from adding up state-level case counts, which are running well ahead of the counts on CDC’s website. For context, the U.S. typically sees around 3,000-4,000 cyclosporiasis cases in an entire year—so this single outbreak has already matched a normal year’s total, and it’s still climbing.

Note that the real number is almost certainly higher: most people with a few days of watery diarrhea ride it out at home rather than see a doctor, and those who do see a doctor may or may not get tested for cyclosporiasis (it’s an expensive test!).

With so many people spending more time on the toilet, this seems bad for efficiency. If only there were some system in place to track this sort of thing.