January 1996
CHICAGO—Investigators recently detailed what they believe was the first U.S. outbreak of diarrheal illness associated with Cyclospora.
The outbreak, which occurred in 1990, consisted of 21 cases of illness among physicians and others working at a Chicago hospital. Contaminated tap water from a physicians' dormitory at the hospital was the probable source of the organism, the report stated. The tap water probably picked up the organism while in a storage tank at the top of the dormitory after the failure of a water pump.
Watery diarrhea, abdominal cramping, low-grade fever, and decreased appetite were common features of the illness, investigators reported in Annals of Internal Medicine. The illness also is marked by periods of remission and relapse that may continue for up to several weeks.
Microscopic examination of stool specimens from 11 infected people showed many spherical bodies 8 to 10 µm in diameter that were identified as a Cyclospora species. The only other outbreaks associated with Cyclospora in the literature have been seasonal outbreaks in Nepal. One outbreak in Nepal was associated with chlorinated drinking water.
For more information, see Huang P, Weber JT, Sosin DM, et al. The first reported outbreak of diarrheal illness associated with Cyclospora in the United States. Ann Intern Med. 1995;123: 401-14.
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