DETROIT, Michigan — What began as an unusual cluster of stomach illness in southeast Michigan this summer has become the largest cyclosporiasis outbreak in U.S. history — and Detroit sits squarely at its center.
Federal investigators have tied the outbreak to shredded iceberg lettuce grown in central Mexico by Taylor Farms de Mexico and served at Taco Bell restaurants. Victims across the region are now coming forward, and the national food safety firm Ron Simon & Associates says it represents hundreds of them, including Detroit resident Cammal Ogletree.
The Outbreak by the Numbers
The scope of the outbreak has widened sharply over the past two weeks. The CDC, FDA, and public health officials in several states are investigating a multistate outbreak of Cyclospora infections linked to iceberg lettuce in nine states. Four newly linked states — Illinois, Kansas, Oklahoma and Pennsylvania — joined Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, West Virginia and hard-hit Michigan.
Based on epidemiological information collected by the CDC, 1,947 people infected with Cyclospora who reported exposure to Taco Bell have been reported by the nine states, with illness onset dates ranging from June 22, 2026 to July 20, 2026. At least 98 hospitalizations have been reported and no deaths — though those figures reflect only lab-confirmed cases, and the true case count is likely far larger.
The gap between confirmed outbreak cases and total illness reports is enormous. Health departments in the nine affected states have reported more than 12,000 cases of cyclosporiasis this summer, with the majority of those cases in Michigan. Michigan alone reported 8,176 cases and 160 hospitalizations as of late this week.
The FDA has called the epidemiological evidence pointing to Taylor Farms “overwhelming.” On July 17, 2026, Taylor Farms de Mexico announced it was voluntarily removing all iceberg lettuce sourced from central Mexico from the U.S. market, initiating a recall that included Marketside-brand product sold at Walmart along with a list of products distributed to food service customers.
A Detroit Victim: Cammal Ogletree
Among the Michiganders whose summer was upended is Cammal Ogletree, a 53-year-old Detroit resident.
Ogletree ate at her local Taco Bell in Allen Park, Michigan, on June 15. Six days later she was suffering unabated diarrhea, severe abdominal pain, headache, vomiting, nausea, fatigue, body aches and loss of appetite. On June 24, as her condition deteriorated, she sought care at Get Well Urgent Care of Detroit; she was treated and sent home, but her symptoms only worsened.
On June 26 she went to the emergency room at Henry Ford Providence Southfield Hospital, where she was placed on IV fluids and given medication for her symptoms before being sent home to recuperate. Her condition continued to decline, and on July 6 she returned to the same hospital — this time she was admitted, remaining for three days and testing positive for cyclospora. She has since been released but remains under the care of her medical providers, and has been seen for follow-up care several times over the past month.
Ogletree has retained food safety attorney Ron Simon and his firm, Ron Simon & Associates, in her claim against Taco Bell and Taylor Farms.
Her experience is not unusual for this outbreak. “About 1-in-10 victims contacting my firm have been hospitalized,” Simon said.
Ron Simon & Associates’ Role in the Litigation
The Houston-based firm has taken a leading role in the wave of litigation now emerging from the outbreak. On July 17, 2026, Ron Simon & Associates, along with DiCello Levitt & Casey LLC of Ohio, filed the first cyclospora lawsuit arising out of the nationwide outbreak, in Mahoning County, Ohio, on behalf of David Ott, a 27-year veteran of the United States Army. The firm now represents hundreds of people sickened across the country, with clients concentrated in Ohio and Michigan, and has brought on additional staff to handle a surge in calls.
Michigan clients make up a substantial share of that caseload. In addition to Ogletree, the firm represents Southfield resident Ella-Salone Jones, whose case illustrates how dangerous the parasite can be for people with underlying conditions. Jones’s routine trip to Taco Bell turned into a nearly two-week hospital stay. She could not take Bactrim, the standard treatment for cyclospora, because of an underlying medical condition, leaving her doctors searching for an alternative — “they had to find something that can help me, and they don’t even really know if it’s helping me,” she said. Simon has said her physicians were forced to rely on less effective medications, which so far have not brought the infection under control. The illness also forced her family to cancel a long-planned Disney World trip with her three children.
The firm has established a Taco Bell Cyclospora Claim Center to assist victims in the outbreak, reachable toll-free at 1-888-335-4901 or through the firm’s website at ronsimonassociates.com.
The FDA’s False Positive — and Why Simon Says It Changes Nothing
Mid-outbreak, the investigation hit a wrinkle. The FDA walked back an earlier statement that lettuce samples from Taylor Farms had tested positive for the parasite, calling it a false positive and saying the mistaken result does not change the basis for its ongoing outbreak investigation or the voluntary recall already underway.
Simon has argued the correction is beside the point, because the product being sampled is not the product that sickened anyone. “They’re testing lettuce that is the lettuce produced now, not the lettuce that made people sick a month ago,” he said. The lettuce responsible, he noted, “is long gone. It’s been consumed.”
Later testing abroad produced a similar result with similar caveats. Mexican health authorities said samples of lettuce and water from the facility tested negative for cyclospora, but that result does not disprove the FDA’s earlier identification of Taylor Farms de Mexico as the likely source — the long incubation period for infection means the crop responsible would have been distributed weeks earlier.
Not Taylor Farms’ First Cyclospora Outbreak
A central allegation in the litigation is that this contamination was foreseeable. In 2013, a salad mix tainted with Cyclospora produced by Taylor Farms sickened 631 people across 25 states. The CDC and FDA linked restaurant illnesses in Iowa and Nebraska that year — many of them at Olive Garden and Red Lobster — to a bagged salad mix from Taylor Farms de Mexico.
That history features in other suits as well. A separate federal lawsuit filed by a Michigan couple alleges Taylor Farms had prior knowledge of the risks of Cyclospora contamination given previous foodborne illness outbreaks involving its produce, and that Taco Bell exercised control over its food supply chain and approved the suppliers used by its restaurants.
Why Cyclospora Is So Hard to Catch — and So Hard to Shake
Part of what has made this outbreak so punishing is that the parasite is easy for doctors to miss. Cyclospora does not show up on the standard ova and parasite test administered in the United States; a specific Cyclospora screen is required. The infection is most effectively treated with Bactrim or another sulfa antibiotic. Army veteran David Ott was initially told by doctors that his state wasn’t seeing cyclospora cases, even though he had traveled to Ohio in the days before falling ill.
Untreated, the illness drags on. Cyclosporiasis can last 30 to 60 days without treatment, and most people recover without hospitalization — but as many as 1 in 10 of those contacting Simon’s firm have required hospital care. Symptoms include prolonged diarrhea, stomach cramps, nausea, fatigue, and weight loss, and the parasite typically spreads through food or water contaminated with human feces.
Where Things Stand
Taco Bell has told the FDA it will stop using lettuce from the recalled supplier, is offering refunds, and has told customers to throw the lettuce away; the agency notes that not all Taco Bell locations in the affected states received the implicated lettuce. Taylor Farms said in a statement that it was “deeply concerned for those who became ill, their families, and the many Americans whose trust in the safety of their fresh produce has been shaken.”
The investigation into the source of the outbreak remains ongoing. The allegations in the lawsuits filed to date have not been proven in court.
For Detroit-area residents like Cammal Ogletree, the practical questions are more immediate: weeks of lost work, hospital bills, follow-up appointments, and a recovery that arrives in fits and starts. Anyone in Michigan who ate at Taco Bell since mid-May and developed prolonged diarrheal illness should ask their physician specifically about a Cyclospora screen — the standard stool panel will not find it.
