Chicago man allegedly got cyclospora from eating Taco Bell chalupa, suit says

A Chicago couple has filed a lawsuit against Taylor Farms amid the ongoing Cyclospora outbreak, with the suit saying the husband was sickened with the bacteria after eating at a northwest side Taco Bell.

The complaint comes after the Food and Drug Administration over the summer announced it was investigating shredded iceberg lettuce grown and distributed by a Taylor Fresh Foods farm in Mexico as the source of the outbreak, which has sickened thousands across the country.

The lettuce had been distributed to Taco Bell in some locations, leading the fast food restaurant to pull certain ingredients from menus. In mid-July, the FDA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the lettuce served at Taco Bell in multiple states was the source of the diarrhea-causing parasite.

The suit, filed Aug. 21 and announced Thursday, said that on July 11, Alonso Zaragoza ordered a Chalupa Supreme box meal at a Taco Bell on the northwest side of Chicago,

The meal, the suit said, contained fresh shredded iceberg lettuce.

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Two days later, Zaragoza felt symptoms related to cyclospora, including becoming feverish, sweaty and dizzy. The symptoms were so bad they forced him to lie down in the basement of the library where he worked, the suit said.

A day later, on July 15, Zaragoza went to the went to the emergency room at Northwestern Memorial Hospital for IV fluids, the complaint said, and was discharged the next afternoon.

Over the next several days, his symptoms increased in severity.

Zaragoza wasn’t tested for a parasite until his third clinic visit July 26. The test came back positive for Cyclospora Aug. 4, the complaint said.

“Alonso Zaragoza did everything a person is supposed to do,” his attorneys said in the statement announcing the suit. “He worked until he could not stand up, went to an emergency room, went back for care twice more, and it was still August 4 before anybody could tell him what he had.”

Zargoza’s wife, Jadhira Sanchez, is suing for losses related to how the illness affected her husband.

Where the outbreak stands

Parasitic illness cases linked to recalled iceberg lettuce have now been confirmed in 20 states, including Illinois, federal health officials said Thursday, expanding the scope of the largest outbreak of its kind in the U.S.

The Food and Drug Administration said government scientists have now identified cases in three additional states: Georgia, Tennessee and Texas.

The tally of people sickened by the parasite is now 11,458, up from about 10,900 reported last week.

The FDA, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and state health officials have focused their investigation on lettuce grown at a farm in central Mexico operated by Taylor Farms, a major U.S. produce supplier.

The FDA said its staffers are continuing to inspect and test produce at the farm, in cooperation with officials from the Mexican government. The U.S. agency said it “remains confident that all recalled iceberg lettuce related to this specific cyclospora outbreak is off the market.”

Cyclospora is a microscopic parasite that commonly causes watery diarrhea “with frequent and sometimes explosive bowel movements,” according to the CDC. Outbreaks tend to occur most often in the late spring and summer.

The heat-loving parasite infects the bowels and spreads through feces. The illness, called cyclosporiasis, is less common than foodborne illnesses caused by other germs, including salmonella and E. coli. Many cyclospora cases are never linked to a specific food or other source.

Earlier this week, the CDC reported that there have been about 29,000 confirmed or suspected cyclospora cases in the U.S. this year. There have been 922 hospitalizations, according to the agency. Previously, the worst year in the U.S. for infections was 2019, when about 4,700 illnesses were reported nationally.