Cyclosporiasis outbreak exposes a weakened US public health system
YPSILANTI, Michigan ― During the height of the summer outbreak of cyclosporiasis, Dea Lancaster set aside her usual duties as nurse coordinator at Michigan's Washtenaw County Health Department to call patients, asking about their symptoms and tracing the contaminated food they ate. The stress of handling one of the largest U.S. foodborne illness outbreaks in decades gave her an eye twitch as she called dozens of patients a day while commiserating with overwhelmed colleagues and cracking dark jokes to cope. “It was a lot of exhaustion, phone calls and clicking of the keys,” said Lancaster, 44. “It was being busy at work and starving but taking food histories and being terrified of eating what they were eating. It was not a good time.” The outbreak may represent a new — and risky — normal: a public-health system some experts say has been weakened by decades of underfunding, particularly for food safety, and further hollowed out by Trump administration cuts, leaving the country less able to detect and contain outbreaks.
Branded placeholder shown because no approved media was supplied.
Scoop News reporting summary
The text below was supplied by the Scoop Newsroom app. Third-party reporting is attributed in the source panel.
Michigan public health officials said the government announcement came far too late. She was hospitalized for six days during her infection, which she said caused excruciating pain, fevers, countless trips to the bathroom and intense fatigue. “It feels like you have pins passing through your colon,” she said.
