Topline
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Tuesday said an ongoing cyclosporiasis outbreak that has sickened thousands across the U.S. is “under control,” additionally condemning broader criticism about the government’s response as “invalid.”
Key Facts
“We do have the outbreak under control,” Kennedy said Tuesday, noting officials have identified the source of the outbreak and the companies involved have implemented recalls.
Kennedy’s claim that a source had been identified, citing “extensive forensics” testing, follows a Food and Drug Administration statement earlier this week acknowledging a false positive result from a sample of lettuce from Taylor Farms, once again leaving no clearly identified source for the outbreak.
The FDA stopped short of clearing Taylor Farms’ link to the cyclosporiasis outbreak and said it was working with the brand to “ensure product implicated in this outbreak has been removed from the market” even as none of the tested produce has yielded a positive sample result.
In response to a question about criticisms that claim the Trump administration delayed notifying the public about the outbreak and that cuts to federal funding last year ended mandatory reporting among some states for six of eight pathogens on a list, including cyclospora, Kennedy said: “Those criticisms are invalid.”
Kennedy argued there were no funding cuts to the Foodborne Disease Active Surveillance Network that would end its tracking of cyclospora, though the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention noted it made reporting of cyclospora optional in 2025.
big number
1,645. That’s the number of confirmed cyclosporiasis cases across 34 reporting states, 145 of which have led to hospitalization, according to the CDC. There are more than 5,100 other cases that require further analysis to confirm the illness as cyclosporiasis, the agency said.
key background
The CDC considers the outbreak of cyclosporiasis, an intestinal illness caused by the cyclospora cayatenesis parasite, to have started in early May. The parasite spreads when people eat food or drink water containing contaminated feces, though FDA officials have said the parasite is difficult to detect on produce, likening it to finding a “needle in a haystack.” There has been little progress in finding the outbreak’s source, despite the false positive test of Taylor Farms’ lettuce, after investigators believed it was linked to produce supplied to Taco Bell in five states. The CDC reportedly expects the number of confirmed cyclosporiasis cases to jump through August, as the onset of illness often takes several weeks after infection.
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