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Intestinal parasite sickens 243 people at country club and McDonalds

According to the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH), the investigation is going on in all the countries across the state for the number of cyclospora illnesses patients as the number of reported cases of the disease since the month of May has now reached 243. According to IDPH, cyclosporiasis is a disease of the intestine that is caused by the microscopic parasite named cyclospora. As stated by IDPH, one can get this infection by eating food or water that has been contaminated with the feces that contains the cyclospora parasite as the parasite is not spread from one person to other directly.

Reports suggest that more than 90 people were infected with this parasite after eating the salads in McDonald’s restaurants and another outbreak of the cyclospora parasite has been reported from a party conducted at a Skokie country club on July 3rd.

As stated by the officials of the village health centers, around 100 out of 950 people who attended the party became ill with the parasite of cyclosporiasis. According to the Skokie health department director, Catherine Counard, a survey has been sent to the people who came to attend the event at Evanston Golf Club to identify what food they had eaten that might be the reason for the parasite outbreak.

According to Counard, the club also identified the village health officials about the parasite outbreak and after that, the parasite was confirmed as the actual cause on Thursday. While discussing the parasite outbreak, Counard also stated that two more cases of the infection have been reported at Skokie this year and they were not linked with the McDonald’s salads but one came from Burger King and the other came from the cruise in Europe.

Counard states that being a closed event at the golf club, the risks of spreading the infection to the outside public was minimum. Counard was reported saying that the team is working day and night with the Illinois Department of Public Health and if anyone comes up with the symptoms of this infection should contact their healthcare provider to get the immediate help through antibiotics. Antibiotics are important because the illness lasts for a few days and can also last for a month or more if not treated properly.

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