Just FYI, as if Brainworm Bobby, the most obscenely disastrous Health Secretary of all time, weren’t enough of a one man plague tsunami, he now has a diarrhea parasite on his plate. No worries (for him) though – he’ll just ignore it or tell us all to drink raw milk and swim in sewage. That’ll cure everything!
From the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) site (which, given this incompetent, greedtastic badministration, I’m amazed is still up. Bast only knows when it was last updated though):
Cyclosporiasis is an intestinal infection that spreads when people ingest food or water contaminated with stool.
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Cyclospora infects the small intestine and typically causes watery diarrhea with frequent, sometimes explosive, bowel movements. Other common symptoms include
- Loss of appetite
- Weight loss
- Abdominal cramping/bloating
- Increased flatus
- Nausea
- Prolonged fatigue
You don't catch Cyclospora from someone who’s suffering from this. It’s not contagious. Outbreaks almost always come from contaminated food or water.How does food become contaminated? Usually when fresh produce is exposed to water contaminated with human feces somewhere during growing, harvesting or processing. Because many fruits and vegetables are eaten raw, the parasite can make its way onto your plate without ever being cooked. Historically, outbreaks have been linked to imported produce such as basil, cilantro, raspberries and leafy greens but no food source has yet been identified in the current outbreak
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Can washing fruits and vegetables prevent infection? Sometimes but not always because cyclospora adheres tightly to produce, and routine rinsing may not completely remove it. That's why outbreaks continue to occur despite people washing their salads. Once contamination occurs before produce reaches your kitchen, there's only so much consumers can do. Preventing contamination earlier in the food production chain is critical.
Should you stop eating fresh fruits and vegetables? There's no need to do that. The overwhelming majority of produce is perfectly safe. Until investigators identify the source, avoiding all fresh produce would likely do more harm than good by reducing consumption of foods that are important for overall health. At this point there is no recommendation to avoid any specific fruit or vegetable.
~ Boghuma K. Titanji MD, MSc, DTM&H, PhD, Emory University School of Medicine
In Michigan the number of reported cases is growing by 20% to 30% per day. That’s only what’s been reported. Think about it – if you have diarrhea for a day or two, do you go to the doctor? No. If it lasts longer and is pretty damned intense? Maybe but I guess it depends on how comfortable you feel with being at a distance from your porcelain throne. The second bit – on the accuracy of case numbers – the CDC, under Brainworm Boy, has made reporting cases optional. Don’t wanna submit data? FINE. No prob, Bobby doesn’t care – he doesn’t think data is important. Surveillance has been optional for one year. I only mention it BUT, if cyclospora is usually found in fresh produce like lettuce, berries, snow peas, basil and the like, perhaps I should alter my diet a little bit.
Cyclospora is not found in, fer instance, carrot cake, Oreos, hot toddies, pizza or saag paneer – cooked food. I’m NOT sure if they can be found in M&Ms. I could eat some to … experiment. Ya know, I’d be doing it FOR SCIENCE!
Wait, what do you mean, "these foods don’t represent any actual change in your eating habits, Donna." Are you implying that I’m at no risk of contracting an explosive diarrhea parasite? Ummmm, could be, could be.
Hey, it just now occurred to me. You know how Trump likes to plaster his name on everything? What would be more appropriate than renaming the Cyclospora cayetanensis parasite, the Donald J. Trump parasite? Can we paint them gold? He'd fucking love that, right? Eh, eh?
Makes a shitload of sense doesn’t it?
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