Sutton Parker
COLUMBIA Mo. KMIZ
MU Health Care confirmed that it has treated 96 cases of cyclosporiasis since the outbreak began in early July.
According to the CDC, Missouri is reporting 568 cases that are connected with the nationwide outbreak involving Taylor Farms and Taco Bell. Missouri was linked to the nationwide outbreak on Wednesday the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services has reported 1,095 confirmed cases statewide as Sunday, an increase of nearly double the previous week’s total.
MU Health Care Infectious Disease Dr. Taylor Nelson says so far the healthcare system has only admitted 1 person into the hospital for treatment of the virus.
“I think everything’s been able to be managed on an outpatient basis, and there probably are more cases that are pretty mild that haven’t been identified,” she said.
Adding that while cyclosporiasis is a fairly prolonged illness, it is oftentimes not fatal or severe, though a pair of fatal cases were reported in Michigan earlier this week.
When it comes to how long symptoms take to show up, Nelson said the onset of illness can be anywhere from one to several weeks.
“So that makes it tough, you know, to identify potential sources, especially at the beginning of an investigation, because people don’t remember where they ate three weeks ago. You know, or what they may have been exposed to, with that long incubation period,” she said.
Nelson said people who are most at-risk from complications are the ones who are immunocompromised.
“So whether that is someone who is immunosuppressed from a disease or from a medication or people at the extremes of age, so very elderly, or potentially young, very young, young kids- so kind of standard, as you know what, we would expect the major risk factors for severe infection to be the immune system,” she said.
As far as diagnosing the disease, Nelson said it can be done through a stool sample.
“So the way we diagnose it now, nowadays, is usually with molecular testing, which is a test that we run on a stool sample. It can sometimes be diagnosed looking under the microscope, but that is not very reliable,” she said.
Nelson adds that once diagnosed, doctors can prescribe an antibiotic
“Standard medical treatment. So there is an antibiotic, which is an interesting thing of an antibiotic called trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole, which actually can treat a lot of bacteria, but can also have some effect on nonbacterial organisms like this,” she said.
Nelson also warned against a new social media trend, “cyclosporiasis skinny” on social media. The trend consists of people attempting to contract the disease in an attempt to lose weight.
“I think as far as effectiveness from a weight loss standpoint, it is not something that is going to be long-lasting weight loss, and also intentionally getting an infection is something we never recommend,” she said.
Nelson explained that any apparent weight loss from the infection is temporary and potentially hazardous.
“I mean, you’re primarily losing water weight because you become dehydrated. And so that’s not like effective fat loss. Truly. So it’s, I mean, you might likely transiently lose some weight because of volume depletion and dehydration, but it’s not something that would be sustainable or safe,” she said.
With all infected products recalled, Nelson said new cases are likely from people who ingested products already contaminated weeks ago before they were recalled.
“It can take weeks. And so when you look back and say that a recall was issued maybe three weeks ago, I think the new cases we’re still seeing are likely people who were infected before all of those contaminated products were removed from consumption,” she said.
With highly affected states like Michigan potentially experiencing a peak in cases, Nelson said that she is hopeful a decline is on the horizon.
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