Cyclospora endemic in 27 countries listed here
If your international travel plans for 2008 include any of these counties---Bangladesh, Brazil, Chile, China, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Egypt, Guatemala, Haiti, India, Indonesia, Jordan, Mexico, Morocco, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru, Puerto Rico, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Tanzania, Thailand, Turkey, Venezuela, Viet Nam, Zimbabwe ---then you should plan on combating Cyclospora.
Cyclospora is endemic in those 27 countries, according to Dr. William H. Shoff, Director of PENN Travel Medicine and the author of a 2007 article on Cyclospora found on Emedicine from WebMD.
Countries with many international travelers are the next category of concern for Dr. Shoff. Those include: Australia, Belgium, Czech Republic, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Japan, The Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and the United States. About 4 percent of those returning from an endemic country return with diarrhea.
Food-borne Cyclospora is also common in the U.S., Mexico, Canada, and Germany. Water-borne cases have been recorded in Chicago and Nepal.
Dr. Shoff gives a straight description of this nasty little bug: "Cyclospora is a small bowel pathogen. After ingestion, Cyclospora oocysts excyst in the GI tract and invade small bowel epithelia, where they undergo asexual division followed by sexual division and produce mature oocysts that are shed in the stool."
We will continue to look for the medical news on Cyclospora, and we trust you will be careful during all your international travels!
