Cyclosporiasis outbreak sickens thousands in Michigan and across the US

One of the largest outbreaks of cyclosporiasis in US history is sweeping the country, sickening nearly 7,000 people and hospitalizing 141, with Michigan the current epicenter. This outbreak is unfolding as the federal public health apparatus that would ordinarily trace and stop it has been systematically gutted by the Trump administration and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a health alert Tuesday reporting 1,645 laboratory-confirmed cases across 34 states since May 1, with more than 5,100 further illnesses awaiting analysis. The confirmed total is more than six times the 249 cases reported by the same date last year, and state-level data show that infections this year have already surpassed the previous US record of roughly 4,700 cases, set in 2019, with six weeks of the season still to run.

The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) reported 3,309 cases as of Tuesday, more than half the national total and some 65 times the 40-50 cases the state records in a typical year, while Ohio has reported 364 and New York City 403.

Federal and state officials have not yet identified a contaminated product, grower or supplier, and no recall has been issued. Michigan investigators, drawing on interviews with more than 1,000 patients, have named leafy lettuce as the leading suspected source.

Federal and Michigan authorities are investigating whether Taco Bell restaurants played a role, the Washington Post reported. Notices at some Detroit-area outlets said the chain could not sell lettuce, cilantro, onion, pico de gallo and guacamole "due to a nationwide recall," which the company called a voluntary precaution. Some of those sickened had eaten there; others had not, indicating the outbreak reaches beyond any single chain.

In 2025 the same assault reached the CDC's FoodNet program, whose active surveillance was cut from eight pathogens to two, ending mandatory tracking of cyclosporiasis after nearly three decades. "CDC is backing off on one of their best surveillance systems," said J. Glenn Morris, director of the Emerging Pathogens Institute at the University of Florida, who helped create the program.

The CDC can now meet only about 40 percent of state requests for help with foodborne disease surveillance and response. Even Robert Redfield, who directed the CDC under Trump's first administration, told CNN, "I don't think it's in our country's interest to cut these programs back."