Cilantro identified as cause for mystery illness in Georgia
Cilantro is what health officials say sickened hundreds of people with a mysterious illness. Many of those are in Georgia.
Both the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Federal Drug Administration have linked the contamination source to Mexican cilantro.
Health officials say most people probably ate the herb at restaurants. They say the cilantro was contaminated by human waste.
Only a few weeks ago the Fulton County Department of Health was fielding 100 reports of the food boe parasite.
The department gathered information from residents who thought they may have been infected by the cyclospora parasite after eating at a particular restaurant. So far, no specific restaurant in metro Atlanta has been named.
Cyclospora is a single-celled parasite that causes symptoms that include extreme stomach cramping, diarrhea and fatigue.
"It is like having the stomach flu for a full month, said patient Ashley Gerber. "We all blamed the rich food or the heat, so everyone was doing that until it lasted way too long."
This is the fourth consecutive summer in which the infection has been reported in the U.S.
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