Cyclosporiasis - Yikes and Yuck!

yes, they are getting reamed. I read taht two infected people in Michigan ate at TB, so it’s a place of interest, even tho thousands in Michigan who have the virus did not eat there.

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Don’t know if you have Costco near you, but they have a frozen triple berry pack - no strawberries, just blueberries, raspberries and blackberries. It’s not bad for eating with yogurt. I too really dislike frozen strawberries.

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Interesting. I went to the farmer’s market this morning. No soft greens (lettuce, spinach, arugula, etc) of any kind and only a very , very few bunches of hardy greens (kale, collards) were for sale.

Probably not due to cyclosporia worries. More likely due it being the middle of the summer and over 100 degrees right now.

I still want some lettuce (for BLTs–my summer favorite). I will either buy a head of iceberg, wash it thoroughly and discard the outside leaves, or buy a head of butterhead grown by the local hydroponic farm. I can get either at the supermarket–but the hydroponic lettuce is $$$.

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Very interesting analysis of the outbreak by Michael Osterholme on his CIDRAP podcast. He goes through an explanation for why he believes what he does, but the bottom line is he believes the outbreak is over, in that no one will be newly infected, and that the outbreak is limited in geographical area, so if you aren’t in a hot spot, you are ok. Also that bagged lettuce is washed MUCH better than anyone can do in their own home.

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Interesting. We do use a lot of bagged lettuce (until now), and I convinced my husband last year that we don’t need to wash it again… unless he found evidence that a 4th washing is helpful. My concern this month would be that perhaps moisture left from cleaning process encourages breeding of any small amount of bad stuff not caught by triple wash.

We also eat a lot of bag salads, including Taylor Farms from Costco. We’ve never had any problems. If ingredients get slimy/yucky, we don’t eat them. I was stressing about what we are going to eat on vacation, and I think I’m now leaning towards “living dangerously” and buying a bunch of Costco fruit and veggies in Canada.

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There is breaking news that the outbreak may be due to lettuce from Taylor Farm used by Taco Bell’s. It maybe good news because then we could go back to eating berries.

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Interesting that scientists were able to tease out the Taco Bell cyclosporiasis diarrhea from the regular Taco Bell explosive diarrhea. :thinking:

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Yes - and it was iceberg lettuce. I don’t buy iceberg lettuce, so I feel somewhat comfortable that I am out of the woods.

D commented this morning that there ER was entirely filled with psych patients and diarrhea patients last night.

Her hospital routinely includes cyclosporia in its GI screen. Not a single patient with diarrhea had cyclosporiasis.

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And lettuce other than iceberg lettuce. I never buy iceberg. Is this political if the outbreak is really due to lack of oversight? We also had screwworm case in cows.

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D and SIL have had stomach issues for a week & a half, on and off. Their D hasn’t had any issues. They didn’t have diarrhea, but they had stomach cramps & didn’t have any appetite. It went away after a few days. Then D started with the diarrhea Thursday night. She & her H sat down and discussed everything they had eaten over the past few weeks. Lo and behold, they remembered that they picked up Taco Bell - something that they never do - while running errands at lunchtime on July 1. GD was at preschool, so she didn’t have any. As soon as that light bulb came on, D contacted their doctor, who prescribed Bactrim for both of them. (They live in the eye of the outbreak.)

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This popped up on my Facebook feed today- I assume that raspberry sales are struggling right now!

I am also seeing a lot of ‘farm’ companies that grow/sell lettuce popping up talking about their safety and hygiene measures.
Though they came out with a ‘potential’ source- I am waiting a bit longer on the on eating/buying salads to make sure that there are not multiple sources or some kind of potential cross contamination in the factory to ship process.

May brave some berries soon though :wink:

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I bought hydroponic lettuce until I could get to the farmers market this weekend, where I bought lettuce and green beans from our small local organic farm. I also bought local blueberries from two guys who grow them on a small farm. I washed everything even better than usual - which I am going to make my new “usual.” I really want spinach and chard, so I’m making a trip to another local grower this week. I do tend to believe that the issue is with the large growers, so I’m sticking with the local farmers when possible. My D made a trip to a farmers market, as well, stocking up on things she felt comfortable buying. As I have mentioned, we are in the area hardest hit.

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Gives a new meaning to “salad shooter.”

/ducks and covers. :laughing:

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When reports came out, I said, “This is going to be coming from fresh food that is grown on the ground, in a place that uses sewage for irrigation.” Surprise, lettuce from Mexico.

I think that it would be very unlikely for this to happen with fresh produce grown on the ground in the US. We need a law mandating the country of origin labeled on all food, but especially on fresh produce grown on irrigated ground. I’d think that our current administration would probably be eager to back that, with their protectionist attitude toward imported food.

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And yet we had issues with romaine lettuce grown in the US… water used for irrigation is not always suitable for drinking, even in the US.

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