Health information
If you got sick.
We are journalists, not clinicians. Everything below is sourced to the CDC or to named medical specialists, and none of it is a substitute for talking to a doctor. If you are worried, that call is the right move.
Dehydration is what makes this dangerous
Both people who died in Michigan had significant underlying health conditions that, the state said, may have been affected by cyclosporiasis and dehydration. Severe diarrhoea and vomiting mean fluid leaving faster than it can be replaced.
Contact a doctor or seek urgent care if you cannot keep fluids down, if you are passing very little urine, or if you feel faint, confused or extremely weak. Do not wait for a test result — confirming this parasite can take weeks.
What it looks like
Symptoms, and the timing that makes them hard to place
Reported symptoms
Watery, sometimes explosive diarrhoea. Stomach cramps. Bloating. Nausea and vomiting. Fatigue. Body aches. Low-grade fever. Loss of appetite.
Some people infected have no symptoms at all. Many people with healthy immune systems recover without treatment.
The delay
There is roughly a week between eating something contaminated and feeling ill. That is why almost nobody can identify the meal — and why the honest answer to “what did you eat ten days ago” is usually a shrug.
Untreated, symptoms can persist for weeks and in some cases months.
There is a treatment
Cyclosporiasis is commonly treated with an antibiotic, Bactrim, according to Dr William Schaffner, an infectious disease specialist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. That is a conversation to have with your own doctor — it needs a diagnosis and a prescription.
Make yourself count
Reporting your illness is not paperwork. It is the data.
Everything in these two episodes comes back to one problem: the people responsible for stopping this could not see how big it was. Every case that gets reported and tested is a pixel in that picture.
If you think you had this, tell your state or local health department. They are the front line — American public health is federated, and it is state and local officials who hold the power to act. Most have an online foodborne illness report form that takes a few minutes.
Where to report
Your state health department — search “[your state] report foodborne illness.”
CDC — cdc.gov/cyclosporiasis for current guidance and case counts.
FDA — report a problem with a food product at fda.gov/safety/report-problem-fda.
Talk to us
We have reported on twenty-two thousand people and spoken to almost none of them.
That is the biggest gap in our reporting and we would like to close it. If you or someone in your house was ill this summer — especially if nobody ever told you what with — we would like to hear from you.
You decide what is on the record. We will not use your name without asking, we will not publish anything you have not seen, and you can change your mind at any point before broadcast.
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Little Hill Podcast · Last updated 5 August 2026
This page is journalism, not medical advice. It summarises publicly reported information from the CDC and named specialists. It cannot account for your circumstances. If you are unwell, contact a healthcare professional.