Michigan lifts special guidance for lettuce as cyclosporiasis cases decline

Anne Snabes, The Detroit News on Aug 6, 2026

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DETROIT — Michigan health officials on Thursday said that residents can resume routine guidance for eating lettuce and salad greens as new cyclosporiasis cases and related emergency department visits are on the decline.

The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services said the broad, precautionary recommendation to avoid bagged salad mixes during the cyclosporiasis outbreak is no longer in effect. Michigan has been experiencing its largest ever outbreak of the parasitic illness, which usually causes frequent, watery and explosive diarrhea.

"Residents may resume their usual food handling practices and make choices based on their individual risk tolerance," the state health department said in a news release.

MDHHS said it continues to recommend avoiding recalled lettuce, though. It also said it will start reporting all outbreak data on a weekly basis, on Thursdays.

The updated guidance comes as Michigan reported 267 additional cases of cyclosporiasis on Thursday, only a 2.2% increase over Wednesday's case total. The state's total number of reported cases of the parasitic illness since June 22 rose to 12,485 on Thursday, according to an MDHHS dashboard.

The department said the data now suggest that new cyclosporiasis case reports are slowing, including a downward trend in diarrhea-related emergency department visits.

MDHHS said that on average, people exposed to cyclosporiasis start to feel sick seven days after exposure, but symptoms can take up to 14 days to appear. The department said the data suggest that the majority of the contaminated produce is likely no longer available for consumption and that most exposures occurred in late June to early July.

The number of cases reported to the department each day has declined since hitting a peak of 726 cases on July 13, according to data posted online on Thursday.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration and state public health officials have been investigating the multistate outbreak of cyclosporiasis linked to iceberg lettuce from central Mexico.

Michigan is one of 15 states included in the outbreak and the hardest hit, based on case numbers. Federal officials recently added Missouri, Arkansas, Iowa, Nebraska, New Hampshire and North Carolina to the outbreak, which already included Michigan, Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, West Virginia, Kansas, Illinois, Oklahoma and Pennsylvania.

Two Michigan residents with cyclosporiasis have died amid the outbreak. The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services declined to give many specifics about the deaths, including in which county they occurred, but on Monday said the deceased had "significant underlying health conditions that may have been impacted by cyclosporiasis and dehydration."

More than 70 of Michigan's 83 counties have reported cyclosporiasis cases, with the highest numbers in Wayne County, which reported 2,131 cases; Oakland County with 1,344 cases; Washtenaw with 1,028 cases; and Ingham County with 880 cases.

As of Thursday, 279 people had reportedly been hospitalized, according to the state health department.