The CDC now records 6,707 laboratory-confirmed, domestically acquired cases of cyclosporiasis since 1 May, with 423 hospitalisations, no deaths and cases in 45 states. That is the figure on its surveillance page, updated on 28 July with data through the 27th, and it is up from the 4,173 the same page carried a week earlier.
The outbreak the recall is named for has not moved with it. The CDC’s investigation page for the iceberg lettuce outbreak, last updated 24 July, still reports at least 1,947 cases, 98 hospitalisations and nine states. Set against the new national figure, the named outbreak accounts for 29% of this season’s laboratory-confirmed cases, down from about 47% when The Fold reported the ratio on 26 July. Against everything the agency has counted or been told about — the 6,707 plus more than 11,500 further cases not yet laboratory confirmed — the outbreak is about 11%.
Part of that shift is a difference in update cycles rather than in the disease: the surveillance page is refreshed weekly and the outbreak page is four days older, so some cases counted nationally may yet be assigned to the outbreak. The CDC also estimates a six-week lag between illness and reporting, and the median onset date is already 2 July, which means the totals for late July are certain to rise. Even allowing for both, the residual is doing what it has done all season — growing faster than the recall explains.