The federal government is winding down two of the three research projects devoted to Cyclospora, the microscopic parasite behind the largest recorded outbreak of its kind in the United States. Politico reported the closures on Sunday, and Reuters carried the account, describing two projects at the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center in Maryland that lost their funding when Congress declined to fund them. The third project remains funded but is due to move from Maryland to Iowa in the coming months as part of a broader Agricultural Research Service reorganization.
The timing is what makes this a household story rather than a policy story. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has logged 17,180 laboratory-confirmed cases of cyclosporiasis acquired inside the United States since the season opened on May 1, according to the agency's case data page, with figures current through August 24. Over the comparable stretch last year, the count was 1,180. That is roughly fifteen times as many confirmed infections, in a summer when the specialized federal capacity for studying the organism is being reduced.
.png?w=600)
