Diarrhea Parasite Situation Is Insane 😳 — Transcript

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1. 0:00diarrhea parasite situation is insane.
2. 0:02On May 1st, 2026, the CDC was notified.
3. 0:06Cyclospora, a parasite that causes
4. 0:08extreme diarrhea lasting longer than 3
5. 0:10weeks that doesn't respond to any
6. 0:11stomach medicines was circulating in the
7. 0:13Eastern United States. Every year
8. 0:15between May and August, we get an uptick
9. 0:17in cyclosporiasis. It's the summer. It's
10. 0:20hot outside. There's a lot of things
11. 0:21growing. Except by July 2026, we started
12. 0:24noticing there's a lot more cases than
13. 0:26normal for this time of year. And even
14. 0:29worse, there's a backlog at the time
15. 0:31that I'm recording this, July 14th,
16. 0:322026. And we know this because Michigan,
17. 0:35who's very good at tracking health
18. 0:37records, has reported more cases than
19. 0:39the entire United States combined right
20. 0:41now. This has gotten to places far from
21. 0:43Michigan, so it's not just them. This is
22. 0:45an outbreak. How did this happen? We're
23. 0:47not sure yet. Cyclospora's life cycle is
24. 0:49just humans. It doesn't go through other
25. 0:51animals. Infected people will eject
26. 0:53oocysts in their solid waste. It's not
27. 0:55contagious at that moment. It has to
28. 0:57sporulate or mature in a warm, moist
29. 1:00environment for days to weeks. That's
30. 1:02why cases go up in the summer. It's in
31. 1:03the water. That gets in and on fruits
32. 1:05and vegetables, which are eaten, and
33. 1:07then it spreads back into another human,
34. 1:09repeating the cycle. It's unsettling to
35. 1:11think that somewhere our food was
36. 1:12irrigated and sprayed, honestly, with
37. 1:14diarrhea water. And it wasn't just in
38. 1:16one place. It's more than 30 states
39. 1:18spread out. So, it's not likely to just
40. 1:20be food service workers not washing
41. 1:22their hands. Cyclospora has been
42. 1:24lingering for some time. So, this gives
43. 1:25us two things. First, it's actually good
44. 1:28that the alarm bells have been raised
45. 1:29about this everywhere because this is
46. 1:31the pain from the patient's perspective.
47. 1:33Imodium doesn't work for this.
48. 1:34Pepto-Bismol doesn't work for this. No
49. 1:36OTC stomach medicines work for this.
50. 1:38It's actually an antibiotic called
51. 1:40Bactrim that works for this, despite
52. 1:42Cyclospora being a parasite, not
53. 1:44bacteria. But you need to see someone to
54. 1:46get a Bactrim prescription, and if there
55. 1:47wasn't an outbreak, they're going to do
56. 1:48that thing where they tell you to come
57. 1:50back a couple more times to try other
58. 1:52things before they even attempt to look
59. 1:54and see if it's Cyclospora, which is
60. 1:56unfortunate because that's wasting time
61. 1:58and severe chronic diarrhea can
62. 2:00dehydrate someone causing electrolyte
63. 2:01imbalances, which in the extreme case
64. 2:03can stop your heart. And it can cause
65. 2:05periods of malnutrition since this will
66. 2:07last weeks without the right treatment.
67. 2:09And it can cause lasting damage to your
68. 2:11gut. But there's an outbreak now, people
69. 2:12know about it, so they're going to look
70. 2:14more closely. The second is, how do you
71. 2:16prevent this? Wash your produce
72. 2:18thoroughly, cut away damaged or bruised
73. 2:20areas before eating. And then when
74. 2:22you're done with that, wash your hands.
75. 2:23Cooking food to 158 degrees Fahrenheit
76. 2:26or higher kills cyclospora. Be alert
77. 2:27when it comes to produce, especially
78. 2:29leafy greens in restaurants right now.
79. 2:31Protect yourself is the most important,
80. 2:33and the situation will eventually pass,
81. 2:35kind of like how hantavirus did.