Explosive diarrhea sweeps parts of the US from fruits and veggies and screwworm in meat: what's safe now?

**Christy Strawser** (0:00)
Welcome to On Deadline, your radio news from Odyssey newsrooms across the country. I'm Christy Strawser, Odyssey's managing editor of news. Summer inevitably brings its own host of risks and sicknesses, from mosquito and tick-borne ailments to swimming, running, and biking dangers.
This year though, we're adding a new wrinkle, explosive diarrhea. Here's WWJ in Detroit.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:23)
Okay, so let's talk about the cyclosporiasis, which is a word that we're all learning how to say.
So, over the weekend, we saw that the numbers continue to spike. Is there any progress in figuring out the origin of where it might be coming from?

**SPEAKER_3** (0:36)
Well, we currently have close to 700 cases, and that means that all 700 of those individuals have to be interviewed and have a really in-depth questionnaire that they answer before we can really trace this back. But what I can tell you is that prior outbreaks have been linked to contaminated produce, and that does remain our top hypothesis. We did put out a press release on Saturday where we talked about those previous outbreaks and the produce that they were related to and how Michiganders can best protect themselves.

**SPEAKER_2** (1:11)
And part of it is, you know, washing your fruits and vegetables. And I think a lot of people do that, but sometimes they buy it in a bag and they think it's pre-washed. Should you still wash those things?

**SPEAKER_3** (1:23)
Well, you know, previous outbreaks have been linked to bad lettuce, bad salad mixes. And it's very hard once material has been contaminated with something like cyclospora, it's hard to actually wash it off. So the safest way to consume lettuce right now, or other leafy greens, the safest way to make a salad is actually to buy whole heads of lettuce to remove those outer leaves. So you're just getting the inside part and then to wash that thoroughly yourself.
That is a safer thing to do than to actually re-wash any sort of pre-washed bags mix.

**SPEAKER_2** (1:59)
Oh, I see. You'll have to explain, too, how long do symptoms take normally to show up after you consume something? Is it pretty immediate or does it take a while?

**SPEAKER_3** (2:08)
Well, that's the thing, and that's why this can be so tricky, is that symptoms don't show up for a week or two after you've consumed something.
Generally, on average, it's about a week. It can be a little bit shorter, but what we are dealing with then are if we see a case that's reported today, that individual may have been exposed a week or two weeks ago, given the time it takes for symptoms to develop and the time it takes to get diagnosed, because then you actually have to go and see a health care provider, you have to get tested, wait for the test to come back positive. So there can be a significant lag, and that makes it more difficult to trace back and understand exactly what food people were eating two weeks ago.

**SPEAKER_2** (2:54)
Are you, I know it's kind of hard to anticipate, but when you see big spikes like this.

**SPEAKER_3** (2:59)
Well, we've got a huge investigation happening right now. So we have all of the the individuals who've been impacted will be contacted by their local health department and will answer an in-depth questionnaire, not only about where they ate and what types of food they purchased or ordered in restaurants, but exact menu items and how food was prepared. So there's a lot of work happening. On top of that, we also have a laboratory system that does something called whole genome sequencing or genetic fingerprinting so that we are able to actually test people and see how closely their psychospora strains are related.
And once we find a type of produce that's implicated, we can test that produce as well. So all of this investigation does take some time. But in the interim, I really want people to follow that public health guidance and to be as safe as possible when consuming produce. So that means things like buying whole heads of lettuce and chopping it up yourself and making sure it's washed yourself.
If you're using berries, cilantro, basil, green onions that you're cooking those items if you can, because cooking is much safer than eating those items raw. And if you're going out to eat in a restaurant, I would actually ask the restaurant if they are taking those same precautions. Because we know that not all produce is prepared in your kitchen. Some of it is prepared in commercial kitchens. So we want to make sure that people are taking these safety tips while we're doing our investigation and looking for the exact culprit.