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SINGAPORE – In recent weeks, the United States has been hit by an outbreak of a gastrointestinal illness known as cyclosporiasis<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n So far, there have been more than\u00a06,700 laboratory-confirmed infections, with an additional 11,500 suspected cases in various states across the US, including Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky and Michigan \u2013 the worse-hit area, where more than 10,000 have been affected.<\/p>\n The cause of the outbreak is still unknown, though the US Food and Drug Administration has linked it to iceberg lettuce served at Taco Bell fast-food restaurants sourced from Taylor Farms\u2019 facility in central Mexico.<\/p>\n However, cases continue to rise even after the supplier had recalled all iceberg lettuce grown and processed at the facility in question.<\/p>\n What exactly is cyclosporiasis, and could a similar outbreak happen in Singapore? Simply Science takes a look.<\/p>\n Cyclosporiasis is an intestinal infection caused by the parasite Cyclospora\u00a0cayetanensis, <\/i>a microscopic, single-celled organism.<\/p>\n The disease\u2019s main symptom is explosive, watery diarrhoea, while other symptoms include fatigue, low-grade fever and nausea.<\/p>\n In many cases, people with cyclosporiasis may have mild or no symptoms, though severe disease or even death can occur, particularly in infants and the\u00a0immunocompromised.<\/p>\n It does not spread from person to person, but is instead transmitted through the faecal-oral route, via consuming food or water contaminated by human stool with the Cyclospora<\/i> parasite, which thrives in areas where sanitation and water treatment is limited.<\/p>\n Cyclospora<\/i> can be found in\u00a0fresh produce such as iceberg lettuce, romaine and parsley. As these are usually eaten raw, the parasite is not killed by heat during the cooking process.<\/p>\n Though cyclosporiasis is endemic in many tropical and subtropical regions, including parts of South-east Asia, it is uncommon in Singapore.<\/p>\n Gastroenterologist Benjamin Yip said he had seen \u201cless than a handful of cases\u201d of the disease over his career. The medical director of Alpha Digestive and Liver Centre, however, did not rule out such incidents happening here.<\/p>\n \u201cSingapore is not immune to such outbreaks,\u201d he said, pointing to recent gastroenteritis incidents.<\/p>\n In recent years, there have been numerous cases of gastroenteritis \u2013 an umbrella term for infections causing inflammation of the stomach and intestines \u2013 caused by bacteria such as salmonella and E. Coli.<\/p>\n In January, 60 pupils from River Valley Primary School were reported to have gastroenteritis symptoms due to suspected food poisoning and, in a separate incident the same month, there were 147 suspected gastroenteritis cases\u00a0involving North View Primary School pupils<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n The Communicable Diseases Agency reported in June that central\u00a0kitchens, food caterers and restaurants were responsible for most food poisoning outbreaks in 2024 and 2025, with 55 such establishments involved in cases over this period.<\/p>\n Yip said Singapore was particularly vulnerable given its dependence on imported foodstuff, which make up some 90 per cent of the country\u2019s food supply.<\/p>\n William Chen, director of Nanyang Technological University\u2019s (NTU) Future Ready Food Safety Hub, believes the risk of an outbreak here is low.<\/p>\n \u201cFor local vegetable farms, we have an integrated parasite control system, therefore the risk of local outbreaks is extremely low,\u201d said Chen, who is also a professor at NTU\u2019s School of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology.<\/p>\n While Singapore imports foods from 180 countries, the Singapore Food Agency (SFA) has strict inspection practices on imported foods, he said.<\/p>\n Although the Republic may consider temporarily discontinuing imports from farms linked to a recent outbreak, the impact on Singapore\u2019s food supply should be insignificant in the light of the country\u2019s large number of import sources, he added.<\/p>\n Additionally, the CDA monitors food-borne illnesses, including those caused by parasites, he pointed out.<\/p>\n Chen said he has not heard of any reported cases of cyclosporiasis in Singapore.<\/p>\n Consumers can protect themselves from the illness, as well as other food-borne diseases by practising good food hygiene, he noted.<\/p>\n This includes washing their hands thoroughly, rinsing fresh produce under running water, checking the source of fresh produce for salad preparation and cooking vegetables when possible, he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n SINGAPORE – In recent weeks, the United States has been hit by an outbreak of a gastrointestinal illness known as cyclosporiasis. So far, there have…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":73776,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2611],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-73775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buzz-headlines","wpcat-2611-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73775","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=73775"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73775\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/73776"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=73775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=73775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=73775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}What is cyclosporiasis?<\/h2>\n
Could an outbreak happen in Singapore?<\/h2>\n
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