The CDC is now reporting two numbers side by side for this summer's Cyclospora outbreak, and the second one is the more revealing of the pair. The agency has laboratory-confirmed 6,707 domestically acquired cases since May 1, and says it is aware of more than 11,500 additional illnesses that are, in its words, "not laboratory confirmed or require further investigation and analysis."
In other words, the confirmed count represents roughly a third of the illnesses officials know about. That ratio, more than any single total, is the honest description of where this outbreak stands.
