More than 100 people are being treated in hospitals in the United States after thousands of cases were reported in more than 30 states across the country. One sufferer described the stomach pain as “like getting a baseball bat in the stomach,” The New York Times reports.
The cases are linked to the parasite cyclospora, and most of those affected are believed to have eaten at the fast food chain Taco Bell.
Ready-to-eat lettuce has been suspected of being behind the outbreak. A positive laboratory result has proved to be incorrect, but the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said on Monday that it is still investigating the suspicion that lettuce from farms in Mexico is the source of the infection.
Got to stop
In the wake of the parasite outbreak, the debate has also centred on President Donald Trump's recent cuts to US government agencies, as part of the explanation.
The Trump administration has fired thousands of people from the US public health agency CDC, which has affected infection tracking efforts. Previously, cyclospora was supposed to be reported to a tracking program, Foodnet, which is no longer the case.
However, Dan Jernigan, former director of the CDC, questions the criticism and, in an interview with The Washington Post, draws parallels to firefighters and firefighting:
“Removing cyclosporiasis (the infection caused by cyclospora) from Foodnet does not mean removing firefighters from the current outbreak. However, it does remove part of the system that shows us how big the problem is and whether it is getting worse over time,” he told the newspaper.
Reduced number of visitors
However, the outbreak and reporting on Taco Bell's problems have had clear consequences for the restaurant chain. Bloomberg reports that the number of daily visitors has decreased by about 19 percent.
This is not the first time that a fast food chain has been in the spotlight related to food safety.
Almost two years ago, McDonald's was hit by an outbreak linked to the ehec bacteria on sliced onions. For McDonald's, this meant sales dropped for six months.
