Health02 July 2026
Hundreds of people in the US so far have recently developed a specific type of food poisoning that’s causing watery and occasionally explosive diarrhea.
Not only is it bad timing with 4th of July celebrations around the corner, but experts are currently at a loss when it comes to the reasons why.
As of right now, there’s no one known source of infection – but it appears to be coming from within the US, not overseas.
The cases don’t appear to be linked.
This specific infection is called cyclosporiasis food poisoning, and it’s caused by Cyclospora parasites.
Cyclosporiasis is caused by eating food or drinking water contaminated by feces containing the parasite. Historically, people would acquire it outside the United States.
However, of the 190 cases reported to public health authorities between the start of May and the middle of June, 145 involve someone who hasn’t traveled beyond US borders in the last couple of weeks.
The infection can’t be passed directly from person to person, which means the evidence points to contaminated food or water from inside the country, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
“There is currently no evidence of a single, multistate Cyclospora outbreak linking all cases,” the CDC said.
While this doesn’t happen often, it’s not unheard of. You might remember an outbreak from 2018 linked to salads sold by McDonald’s.