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Cyclospora Outbreaks Will Only Get Worse As Climate Chaos Grows | Opinion
This has been one of the most dangerous summers on record and experts have been warning about it for decades. We’re not talking about pool accidents or shark bites—we’re talking about now two deaths linked to the outbreak of cyclospora, which continues to spread in the U.S. Scientists have traced where the lettuce carrying the parasite came from, but they stopped short of identifying the actual cause of this outbreak. Read More on Opinion It’s by creation, not circumstance. Cyclospora season typically runs May 1 to August 31, but with a month to go, the CDC has already confirmed 10,000 cases and is testing another 12,000. For comparison: They usually only report on average 2,800 cases for the entire season. It’s easier to associate loss of life with extreme weather when it’s tied to a singular event–a hurricane, flood, fire. But you can “contact-trace” this now fatal outbreak back to the ongoing climate crisis. It makes sense, considering heat speeds up the process that makes Cyclospora infectious to humans, which is why we see more cases in summer. And if summer gets longer and warmer, we’ll see a longer, hotter mechanism for the parasite to thrive. It’s not just the...
