US CDC links four more states to cyclosporiasis outbreak, Washington Post reports

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has linked four additional states to a multistate cyclosporiasis outbreak traced to shredded iceberg lettuce sourced from central Mexico, the Washington Post reported on Friday, citing two people familiar with the investigation.

Illinois, Kansas, Oklahoma and Pennsylvania were newly tied to the outbreak, according to the report, joining Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and West Virginia.

Reuters could not immediately verify the report. The CDC could not be reached for comment outside regular business hours.

The inclusion of more states indicates investigators are linking illnesses across a wider area, helping trace how a potentially contaminated food product moved through the supply chain and identify other businesses that may have received it, the report said.

The patients in the four additional states may have fallen ill around the same time as those in the initial five states, but investigators likely needed more time to determine whether the cases were part of the same outbreak, the Post reported, citing one of the people.

Cases of cyclosporiasis, caused by the cyclospora parasite, have risen steadily in recent months across the U.S., according to the CDC.

The latest development means federal investigators have now traced shredded iceberg lettuce served at Taco Bell restaurants in nine states to a single supplier in Mexico, according to the report.