With cyclospora removed from the list of pathogens the federal government tracks, an eleven-person office reports the matter has been resolved at the federal level.
WASHINGTON—Reporting that confirmed federal cases had fallen to zero, the Department of Health and Human Services said Thursday that the worst cyclospora outbreak in recorded American history had been resolved at the federal level, weeks after the agency removed cyclospora from the list of pathogens it monitors, officials confirmed.
The parasite was among six of the eight pathogens the CDC was directed last year to stop tracking under its FoodNet program, according to reporting by The American Prospect, which documented the surge alongside the loss of more than 20,000 workers at the U.S. Department of Agriculture and thousands more at the CDC and FDA. State health departments, which continue to count, report that the illness is still spreading.
“A case we do not confirm is not a case we have,” said one senior official, speaking on condition of anonymity to describe the surveillance change. “For the first time, the federal number is a number we are comfortable with. It is zero.”
How the Cyclospora Outbreak Was Resolved at the Federal Level
The reconciliation is administered by the Office of Surveillance Alignment, an eleven-person unit operating out of a former records room in Rockville, Maryland. Under its methodology, a pathogen that is not on the monitored list cannot generate a confirmed federal case, and a disease that generates no confirmed federal cases is classified as not federally present. Cyclospora came off the list in late June. The confirmed federal count came off the books the same week.
The office does not dispute that Americans are sick. It disputes that the federal government is in a position to say so. “The states are free to count what they like,” the official said. “We are not going to get ahead of data we no longer collect.”
Michigan, which still counts, has recorded 3,762 cases, more than double the last figure the CDC published before it stopped, the Prospect reported. The Office of Surveillance Alignment said state totals were noted but not reconciled, on the reasoning that a case confirmed by a state is a state case.
Whether the Method Extends to Other Diseases
The office began its count at zero on the day it assumed the file, an accounting approach the administration has applied to other federal programs. It is now reviewing whether the same method can be extended to the remaining monitored pathogens, on the ground that a disease the government does not track cannot be described as spreading.
“People hear that we stopped counting and they think that is the bad part,” the official said. “We think it is the solution. You cannot have a cyclospora outbreak that is not, federally speaking, being reported.”
Asked how many Americans were sick with the parasite on Thursday, the official referred questions to Michigan.
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