July 25, 2026
New York has become one of the hardest-hit states outside the Midwest in a cyclosporiasis surge that public health officials are now calling the largest on record in the United States. State health authorities have logged roughly 632 cases since the beginning of May — a figure that already exceeds the total number of cases New York reported in all of 2024 and again in all of 2025, when annual counts ran between 500 and 700.
Food safety attorney Ron Simon currently represents dozens of victims sickened by Cyclospora in New York. Those cases form part of a larger inventory of hundreds of cyclosporiasis victims his firm represents across the Midwest region, where the outbreak has hit hardest.
The New York Picture
New York City accounts for the majority of the state’s illnesses. The NYC Health Department has reported 447 cases diagnosed since May 1, with data current through July 20. Earlier in the month, city officials noted that case counts were running roughly three times higher than the same stretch of 2025 — an increase steep enough to prompt an active investigation into a possible common food source.
Cases have also been reported outside the five boroughs, in counties across the rest of the state, at levels well above the usual early-summer baseline of 20 to 55 cases.
New York State Department of Health Commissioner Dr. Jim McDonald has publicly cautioned that investigators may be dealing with more than a single contaminated product, and that the search for sources remains open. That assessment matters for New Yorkers: it means the recall of one implicated item does not necessarily end the exposure risk.
New York Sits Outside the Confirmed Lettuce Outbreak — For Now
Federal investigators have identified a defined multistate outbreak linked to iceberg lettuce, which as of July 24 had grown to nine states: Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, West Virginia, Illinois, Kansas, Oklahoma and Pennsylvania. On July 17, Taylor Farms recalled iceberg lettuce sourced from central Mexico, covering both retail product and lettuce distributed to restaurants and other food service customers. Some of the recalled product moved through restaurant supply chains, including Taco Bell locations.
New York is not currently included in that nine-state cluster. But its case count keeps rising, and the CDC has been explicit that it is tracking multiple separate clusters this season, some of which have no identified vehicle at all. Nationally, the CDC has confirmed more than 4,100 laboratory-verified domestic cases since May 1 and is aware of over 7,400 additional cases still awaiting confirmation. Combined state and federal tallies put the nationwide total near 12,000 confirmed or suspected illnesses, with Michigan alone approaching 8,000.
Because Cyclospora requires roughly a week to produce symptoms — and sometimes as long as two weeks — cases reported today reflect exposures that occurred well before the recall. Investigators have warned that the epidemic curve has not yet turned.
What Cyclosporiasis Does
Cyclospora cayetanensis is a microscopic parasite transmitted through food or water contaminated with human feces. It clings to fresh produce and resists ordinary washing; standard restaurant and household disinfectants do not eliminate it. Unlike norovirus or many bacterial pathogens, it does not spread person to person, because the parasite must mature in the environment for one to two weeks before it becomes infectious.
Symptoms typically include watery, frequent and often explosive diarrhea, along with stomach cramping, bloating, nausea, loss of appetite, fatigue and weight loss. Untreated, the illness can persist for weeks and relapse. Treatment generally requires a specific antibiotic regimen.
One of the practical problems driving undercounting is diagnostic: Cyclospora is frequently missed on standard stool panels unless a clinician specifically orders testing for it. Patients who see a provider for prolonged diarrhea and are told nothing was found may in fact have been tested for the wrong things.
Guidance for New Yorkers
Health officials recommend washing all fresh produce thoroughly under clean running water, and cooking produce when practical — heating to 158°F (70°C) kills the parasite. Michigan health authorities, working from the leading hypothesis in that state’s investigation, have gone further with lettuce specifically: buy whole heads rather than pre-washed bagged greens or pre-mixed salad kits, discard the outer two to three layers of leaves, and wash the remaining inner leaves thoroughly.
Anyone experiencing sudden and persistent diarrhea should contact a healthcare provider and specifically raise Cyclospora, and should report the illness to their local health department. Documentation matters both for the public health investigation and for anyone who may later pursue a claim.
Legal Exposure
Under New York law, sellers and distributors of contaminated food can be held strictly liable for the illnesses that food causes — a plaintiff generally does not need to prove negligence, only that the product was contaminated when it left the defendant’s control and that it caused the illness. Growers, processors, distributors, retailers and restaurants can all fall within that chain.
Victims who retain records — receipts, loyalty card histories, delivery orders, photographs of packaging, and above all a laboratory-confirmed diagnosis — are in a substantially stronger position, because those records are what allow investigators and attorneys to trace a single illness back to a specific product and supplier.
Ron Simon & Associates continues to investigate cyclosporiasis illnesses in New York and nationwide.
