Fda Issues Warning About Illness Outbreak

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration warned Tuesday that people suffering from diarrhea who have recently eaten fresh raspberries should have a doctor diagnose whether they were infected in a growing outbreak of cyclospora.

The parasitic infection has struck at least seven states - California, Maryland, Nebraska, Nevada, New York, Rhode Island and Texas - since mid-April.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention counts 110 laboratory-confirmed cyclospora cases, and said doctors have diagnosed several hundred more patients, although the CDC would not give final numbers Tuesday.

Guatemalan raspberries are the suspect. Growers there suspended U.S. shipments until the FDA determines the outbreak is over.

But U.S. and Guatemalan officials are frustrated because they thought they had a solution after cyclospora-tainted raspberries sickened nearly 1,000 Americans and Canadians last year.

Medical experts thought last year’s outbreak occurred because the raspberries were harvested during Guatemala’s rainy season, when that country suffers a flulike “May sickness,” explained FDA Deputy Commissioner Mary Pendergast.

This year, farmers harvested their berries before the rainy season, yet cyclospora struck again.

The FDA will bring together experts next month to compare research on everything from the possible sources of contamination to ways of detecting cyclospora on fresh fruit.