Hot summer.
You noticed. The kind of heat that sits on your chest and refuses to lift.
That sticky air might not just be making you miserable. It could be feeding a parasite.
We’re talking Cyclospora cayetanensis. The cause of cyclosporiasis.
Right now the clusters are popping up in 31 states. The Centers for Disease Control says 843 confirmed cases.
Wait.
That number feels small because it is an undercount. Michigan alone logged over 3,300 patients since late June. The CDC tally only tracks what states hand them directly. So the real picture? Much uglier.
Lettuce.
Public health folks in Michigan are staring at salad greens. They suspect it but haven’t pinned it to one farmer. Or one supplier. Maybe it’s bagged mixes. Maybe herbs. They haven’t ruled out the kitchen sink, literally.
Here’s how you catch it.
It’s a microscopic parasite. It hitchhikes on food or water tainted with human feces. Contamination usually starts on farms. It isn’t person-to-person. You won’t get it from a handshake.
You get it by eating.
National Geographic puts the incubation at a week typically. But it swings wide. Two days? Maybe. Two weeks? Also maybe.
Symptoms are brutal.
Watery diarrhea. Often explosive. Stomach cramps that double you over. Nausea. Fatigue. Weight loss. It lingers for weeks. Not life-threatening for most? True. But for old folks or people with weak immune systems, it’s a serious trip to the ER.
This isn’t E. coli. It isn’t Salmonella. It’s rarer.
Until now.
A Warmer World, More Worms
Cicadas are singing fourteen days earlier than they did twenty years ago.
You’ve heard the buzzing start before the calendar turned. That’s climate change tweaking nature’s clock.
Same trick. Different player.
Global warming is stretching the season where these pathogens thrive. Public health experts warned about this. They said the spike would come. Here it is.
Around ten years ago? Cyclosporis clusters happened every summer. But they were small. Quiet.
Then 2018 happened. 2019 followed. Now we’re in 2026 seeing spikes again.
Sure. Better testing helps explain the numbers. We are finding more cases because we are looking harder.
But that doesn’t explain everything.
Climate change.
Rising temperatures. Shifts in weather patterns.
The parasite needs heat. Moisture. It has to mature outside before it infects you. Warm summers create perfect conditions. A nursery for the parasite.
We see this elsewhere too. West Nile Virus? Once rare in the US. Now endemic. Mosquitoes love heat. So do ticks. Zika. Dengue.
Warming trends help establish these diseases where they used to be strangers.
Europe is seeing tropical bugs show up on its doorsteps too. The map is changing. The borders are moving inward.
Scientists see the link. Higher temps in non-tropical spots mean more cyclospora prevalence. It’s simple biology meeting meteorology.
The produce on your table travels far. But the conditions that grow the threat are getting closer to home. Faster.
The next heatwave won’t just make the asphalt soften.
It will make the salad risky.
Are we ready to wash off a warming planet? 🌡️🥗
