Philadelphia has seen nearly two dozen cyclosporiasis cases this year

Federal officials this week assured Americans they can safely eat fresh produce, saying they’ve issued new safety guidelines for producers and pulled all lettuce associated with an outbreak of cyclosporiasis from the market.

The intestinal parasite Cyclospora cayetanensis, which causes “explosive” diarrhea, had contaminated lettuce sold in 15 states, including Pennsylvania.

Philadelphia health officials said Monday that the city has confirmed 22 cases of the gastrointestinal illness in 2026. Reported cases have been higher elsewhere in the state.

Statewide, officials had recorded 214 confirmed cyclosporiasis cases as of Tuesday and an additional six probable cases. Pennsylvania confirmed 40 cases of cyclosporiasis in 2025 and 87 in 2024, officials said.

Federal health officials have confirmed more than 13,000 cases across 47 states this spring and summer.

The CDC has linked more than 6,000 cases of cyclosporiasis, 278 hospitalizations, and two deaths to iceberg lettuce sold by Taylor Farms. (Taylor Farms had also recalled jalapenos separately linked to a salmonella outbreak in 26 states. The jalapenos were not sold in Pennsylvania.)

Pennsylvania has reported far fewer cyclosporiasis cases than states like Michigan and Ohio, where thousands have been sickened. Still, because confirmed cases have increased in Pennsylvania in recent weeks, it’s too soon to predict case counts for the year, said Akhil Vaidya, a distinguished professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at Drexel University College of Medicine.

“Generally, it is between May and August that you see Cyclospora. We don’t know how it will go for the rest of the year,” he said. “I hope we dodged a bullet.”

Cyclospora was only discovered by scientists in the mid-1990s, and more research on the parasite remains needed, Vaidya said. Most research is conducted outside the U.S., where cyclosporiasis is more common, and the parasite cannot be grown in a lab, which often makes it difficult to track the source of foodborne outbreaks, he said.

State and federal health officials must carefully monitor when and where illnesses emerge to understand why so many cases have been reported this year, Vaidya said.

State health officials urged Pennsylvanians to take these steps to protect themselves from cyclosporiasis: washing their hands with soap and water before and after handling raw fruits and vegetables; rinsing produce under hot water, scrubbing firm produce like melons with a clean brush; cutting away damaged parts of produce; and refrigerating cut, peeled, or cooked fruits and vegetable as soon as possible.

Cyclospora is not necessarily killed by rinsing alone, so the FDA advises cooking produce to 158 degrees to remove the parasite.