A Chicago man who was hospitalised with cyclosporiasis says a Taco Bell chalupa was the only food item containing lettuce that he consumed before falling seriously ill, as US health officials continue investigating a multistate outbreak linked to shredded iceberg lettuce.
The outbreak, caused by the microscopic parasite Cyclospora, has resulted in nearly 1,700 confirmed cases and more than 5,100 additional reported illnesses, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Cases have been identified in 34 states.
Alonso Zaragoza, 46, lives in the Belmont Cragin neighbourhood of Chicago. He told NBC Chicago that he began experiencing symptoms during the weekend of July 11–12.
As his condition worsened, Zaragoza said he was using the bathroom approximately every 90 minutes and was unable to sleep properly for days.
“I don’t think I slept more than an hour and a half continuously in the last week,” he said.
By midweek, he noticed blood in his stool and decided to seek emergency medical treatment.
Doctors placed him on an IV drip and conducted stool and blood tests. After testing positive for Cyclospora, Zaragoza began trying to determine what food might have caused the infection.
In a Facebook post, he described the severity of his illness.
“Four days without sleep, chills, fever, diarrhoea, vomiting, a loss of five pounds, and a late-night visit to the Emergency Room,” he wrote.
He has since been discharged from the hospital.
Zaragoza said he reviewed everything he had eaten before becoming ill and found only one item that contained lettuce.
“I looked through everything; there was nothing that I ate that contained lettuce except a chalupa from the Luxe Box at Taco Bell. I checked the app and Googled the ingredients—it said iceberg lettuce,” he told NBC Chicago.
The CDC has confirmed that the outbreak is associated with shredded iceberg lettuce served at Taco Bell locations in Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and West Virginia.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) launched a traceback investigation and identified a specific iceberg lettuce supplier in Mexico that supplied Taco Bell restaurants linked to illnesses.
Health officials have advised customers not to consume shredded iceberg lettuce served at Taco Bell restaurants in the affected states while the investigation remains ongoing.
On July 17, produce company Taylor Farms announced that it had removed all iceberg lettuce imported from Mexico from the US market because of a potential Cyclospora contamination risk. The company later said that a positive test result involving its products had turned out to be a false positive.
Authorities have not yet identified a single confirmed source for every case in the outbreak, and investigations by the CDC and FDA are continuing.