Health officials have issued a travel notice after a spike in Cyclospora infections among UK holidaymakers returning from abroad, with 67 cases logged across England, Scotland and Wales.
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) put out an alert on July 30 after confirming a rise in cases of the microscopic parasite, which causes an illness called cyclosporiasis and can trigger severe, explosive diarrhoea.
Outbreak linked to Mexican resorts
In the early cluster, 48 of the first 52 reported cases were linked to travellers returning from luxury beach resorts in Mexico, particularly Cancún and the Riviera Maya. Similar Cyclospora infections have also been reported in the USA.
UKHSA has linked the current travel-related outbreak to contaminated raw, unpeeled produce - exactly the kind of food many guests load up on at high-end, all-inclusive resorts. The parasite can cling to the tiny folds of items like fresh berries, leafy green salads and fresh herbs such as mint (often used in cocktails), basil or coriander, according to the UKHSA.
How Cyclospora spreads
Cyclospora spreads via the faecal-oral route and only infects humans. It typically gets into the food chain when crops or fresh produce are irrigated or washed with water contaminated by infected human sewage, or when human waste is used as fertiliser.
Even if kitchens wash food in chlorinated tap water, Cyclospora can survive chlorine exposure for long periods, meaning standard cleaning routines may not be enough to remove it, Cleveland Clinic explains.
Symptoms and advice
However, the UKHSA stresses it is not spreading widely in the UK because it does not pass easily from person to person. The parasite is not immediately infectious when it leaves the body, and needs one to two weeks outside in warmer, tropical conditions to mature, which makes onward spread in the UK climate unlikely.
Doctors say the most alarming issue is how relentless the symptoms can be. Monica Gandhi, MD, MPH, professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, told Medical News Today: "The diarrhoea can occur almost every hour and be of a large volume and watery, which leads to dehydration."
"The diarrhoea can be so explosive that it comes out involuntarily, before the person can make it to the bathroom. The diarrhea does not have blood or mucus, but is just watery and high volume."
Anyone who has recently travelled to Mexico or the US and develops severe watery diarrhoea is urged to seek medical advice.
