The national cyclospora outbreak has sickened at least 19,883 people in the United States, with 1,064 hospitalized, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Two people who lived in Michigan have died. Those are the cases that were diagnosed and reported from May 1 to August 31, 2026, which is the cyclospora season. This number does include patients n the multistate outbreak linked to recalled Taylor Farms iceberg lettuce served at Taco Bell and other restaurants, and sold at grocery store chains in 21 states.
This information is current as of September 15, 2026. The CDC also announced it will stop updating their page weekly because “the number of recent infections has significantly declined.” Periodic updates will be posted instead.
The patient age range is from 1 to 99 years. The states reporting cases are 49 states plus the District of Columbia. The only state with no cyclospora cases is Delaware. The hardest hit states are Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio.
For comparison, last year, there were a total of 1,180 cyclosporiasis illnesses reported in this country. This has been an exceptional year with very high case counts. The peak of reported cases was mid July according to the epi curve.
It can take up to six weeks after symptoms start until a patient sees a doctor, is diagnosed, and that diagnosis is reported to the government, so the outbreak will likely continue growing until the middle of October.
The true number of patients in this outbreak is much higher than those numbers. The multiplier for this pathogen, which epidemiologists use to estimate the number of patients in an outbreak, is 83.1, because most people do not see a doctor when they contract this infection. That means that there could be more than 1.6 million people sick with this parasite.
There are multiple clusters of outbreaks that the CDC and FDA will continue to investigate. If sources are identified and there is something for consumers to do about it, the CDC will issue outbreak notices for those clusters.
There were also cases of cyclosporiasis reported among people who traveled outside the United States. There were 2,078 people sick, with 74 hospitalized and no deaths.
