The Cyclospora Files · Listener resources
What we know about
the 2026 outbreak —
and what nobody does.
Latest · Wednesday 5 August, morning
Three things changed on Tuesday, and one of them changed the size of the outbreak.
- The CDC published its own figures and they are much larger. More than 22,000 people confirmed or suspected, and 517 hospitalisations. Its surveillance page shows 10,468 laboratory-confirmed cases since 1 May plus more than 12,255 still unconfirmed or under investigation. The confirmed count rose by roughly 56% in one week — which is also the explanation for two widely published figures that appeared to contradict each other. They were the same number, seven days apart.
- The outbreak is being expanded from nine states to fifteen. Arkansas, Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire and North Carolina are being added, according to the Washington Post, which cites people familiar with the investigation. Missouri alone reports 1,095 cases, roughly double its total a week earlier. The CDC has not published this itself and we are not going to describe it as an announcement until it does.
- Sysco, the largest food distributor in the United States, has stopped buying iceberg lettuce from Taylor Farms. Its chief executive told Reuters so on Tuesday. This is a commercial judgement, not a regulatory finding — no laboratory test has yet linked any product to this outbreak. It is also the first time anybody with a purchase order has acted on information the rest of us cannot see.
Sources: CDC surveillance and outbreak pages, accessed 5 August · NBC News, 5 August · Washington Post, 4 August · Reuters, 4 August. The full chronology →
More than twenty-two thousand people are confirmed or suspected to have been infected with a parasite this summer. Five hundred and seventeen have been hospitalised and two have died. Six weeks in, eight of the twelve foodborne outbreaks the FDA is investigating still have no identified source.
This page collects everything we used to make the programme, everything a listener might actually need, and an honest account of what is still unresolved. Start wherever your question is.
Start here if you are unwell
Sick right now?
Dehydration is what makes this dangerous. If you cannot keep fluids down, or you have signs of severe dehydration, contact a doctor — do not wait for a test result.
We are journalists, not clinicians. Everything on that page is sourced to the CDC and to named specialists, and none of it replaces a doctor.
The outbreak in seven figures
The Cyclospora Files
Three episodes. One parasite.
Listen in order if you can. Part One is the outbreak, Part Two is the company and the documents, Part Three is who ends up carrying it.
Under Control
On 21 July the Secretary of Health and Human Services said the outbreak was under control. This is what the two weeks after that sentence actually looked like — and the surveillance programme that last summer stopped requiring anybody to track this parasite.
The Box Stays in the Back
You have probably been buying this company for thirty years without ever seeing its name. Five rewrites of one public statement in sixteen days, a plant in Guanajuato where this happened to six hundred and thirty-one people in 2013 — and the week the country’s largest food distributor stopped buying from them.
Someone Else’s Problem
A theory of government. A labour arrangement in Arizona. Thirty-two million missing dollars. Everybody the outbreak knocked over on its way past — and Taylor Farms’ own answer to the ten questions we put to them, read in full.
Everything else
What happened, in order
The full timeline, why the case numbers all disagree, the six-week reporting lag, and the twelve outbreaks the FDA is running at once.
Is it in my fridge?
The supermarket brands this supplier makes, why you cannot identify them from the bag, what is safer to eat, and the one thing that actually kills the parasite.
If you got sick
Symptoms, the dehydration warning signs that matter, how to report an illness to your state, and how to tell us your story.
Sources & how we reported it
Every article we used, Taylor Farms’ full statement to us and which of our ten questions it answered, the 2013 primary documents, and our corrections policy.
Little Hill Podcast · Last updated 5 August 2026
This page is journalism, not medical advice. Case counts move daily and ours will lag. For live figures see the CDC, the FDA outbreak page, and your state health department.
Got something wrong? Tell us — we publish corrections.