At a press conference on July 21, health officials in North Carolina, which has seen a surge in illnesses caused by the parasite cyclospora this summer, said that some of the cases appear to be linked to parsley and cilantro. The state has reported 561 cases of cyclosporiasis since May 1. That’s nearly double the number of cases it recorded in all of 2025.
State officials said that lettuce may also be involved, and listed it alongside parsley and cilantro as a food item that “keeps showing up repeatedly” in interviews with infected people. However, they noted the increase in cases seen in North Carolina so far does not appear to be related to the large cluster of illnesses “associated with lettuce and Taco Bell” restaurants in other states. (Federal health officials have linked shredded iceberg lettuce supplied by Taylor Farms and served at Taco Bell locations in Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, and West Virginia with illnesses in those states.)
“We have not noticed that association here,” said Carl Williams, a public health official at the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services. “We can say that because we do a thorough investigation of all of these reported cases in collaboration with our local health departments.”
Williams, who cautioned that the findings were preliminary and that no definitive source had been identified yet, said that the frequency with which parsley, cilantro, and lettuce have appeared in investigators’ ingredient-level analyses of the food eaten by residents prior to infection has led officials to believe they “may be implicated.”
The herbs appear to be among the first additional foods, aside from iceberg lettuce, that health officials have publicly linked to at least some of the thousands of cyclosporiasis cases reported in the U.S. this year.
On July 22, the Food and Drug Administration said that it is investigating another outbreak of cyclosporiasis, with at least 72 cases, linked to “a not yet identified product.” An FDA spokesperson said that the agency has initiated traceback and that “officials are working together to determine the specific cause of illnesses in this cluster of cyclospora cases.”
