Boston.com19%
Mass. sees 'normal' levels in cases of the explosive diarrhea parasite, DPH says 14%
By Samantha Genzer10%
7/15/2026, 3:10:47 PM
Topics: Parasitic Infections, Public Health
Keywords: Health
BS Summary: This article contains 19 faulty reasoning types, including Appeal to Authority, Negativity Bias, and Hasty Generalization, with Availability Heuristic as the most egregious example at 10.9% saturation with 44 hits. Analysis detected 531 faulty-reasoning hits from 404 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 30% and a BS Rank of 14% (19,018 of 21,887 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 86.90% of the article peer group.
Mass. sees 'normal' levels in cases of the explosive diarrhea parasite, DPH says
State officials say the next update of reported cases — which currently sits at 18 from May 1 to July 1 — will be available in the first week of August.
Significant buzz has built up since the cyclospora parasite, known to cause explosive diarrhea, was officially detected in Massachusetts this summer.
While Midwestern states are currently dealing with an outbreak of the parasite, state officials say Massachusetts is not seeing a surge of reported cases.
“There is no evidence currently that the outbreak of Cyclospora affecting multiple Midwestern states is affecting Massachusetts,” a state Department of Public Health spokesperson told Boston.com Wednesday.
“We are seeing a normal seasonal amount of cyclosporiasis so far this year.”
Between May 1 and July 1, 18 cases of cyclosporiasis — the infection caused by cyclospora — were reported in Massachusetts residents, according to DPH.
“This is in line with the normal number of cases seen in Massachusetts during this time frame,” the spokesperson said.
According to DPH data, the parasite was detected 74 times in Massachusetts residents in 2025, following 84 reported cases in 2024.
During a spring and summer outbreak in 2019, Massachusetts documented more than 100 cases of cyclosporiasis.
While seasonal increases in cases are typical at this time of year, DPH officials said they expect to see additional cases because diagnosis does not always happen promptly after symptoms begin.
State officials will update Massachusetts’ online surveillance database in the first week of August to reflect cases reported from May through August, DPH said.
The parasite is spread through contaminated food or water and treatable with antibiotics.
Its symptoms include watery diarrhea, weight loss, bloating, cramps, nausea, vomiting, exhaustion, and a fever.
Some infected with cyclospora do not experience symptoms, according to DPH.
To investigate outbreaks, DPH works with local health boards, which receive individual reports based on residency and interview patients about their food history.
DPH epidemiologists continuously review this data to identify clusters linked to common exposures, officials said.
Previous outbreaks in the U.S. have been linked to fresh produce, such as raspberries, fresh basil, cilantro, scallions, snow peas, and bagged salads.
DPH officials recommend washing fresh produce before eating to help avoid infection, but they caution that doing so might not fully prevent contracting the disease.
Speakers
1speaker29%attributed speech285writer words
Voice mapSelect a segment to jump to its words
Selected voice
81%flagged-word coverageDepartment of Public Health
119 attributed words100% of attributed speech74% writer coverage
Attribution is sentence-level. Pattern percentages are calculated only from words assigned to that voice.
Loading…
Loading…
Loading…
Loading…
Analysis
Hover over highlighted words in the article to view the associated bias or fallacy analysis.