Latest / In Focus with Carolyn Hutcheson / Measles, Cyclosporiasis, and Food Safety - TPR's In Focus - August 13, 2026

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Measles, Cyclosporiasis, and Food Safety - TPR's In Focus - August 13, 2026 · In Focus with Carolyn Hutcheson

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  Support comes from the Janice Hawkins Cultural Arts Park on
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  the main campus of Troy University, featuring the International Arts
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  Center, the Fred Noll Hollis Museum,
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  and the Hua Bao Zhu Gallery. More information at troy.edu/artspark.
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  From Troy Public Radio, this is In
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  Focus, and I'm Carolyn Hutcheson. With all the news about
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  cyclosporiasis and salmonella,
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  State Health Officer Dr. Scott Harris joins us
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  with an update on these foodborne illnesses,
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  and he shares the latest on the resurgence and spread of
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  measles.
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  Dr. Scott Harris, it is a real pleasure to welcome you back
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  to Troy Public Radio. Thank you, Carolyn. It's really good to be with
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  you again. Dr. Harris, so much is in the news
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  about measles,
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  cyclosporiasis, jalapeño peppers,
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  school vaccines. I need your help to straighten
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  all of this out with the listeners. Where do you want to start? What a
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  crazy summer it's been so far. So cyclosporiasis
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  is a parasite that causes intestinal infections.
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  The germ itself is called Cyclospora, and the disease is
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  called cyclosporosis. We always have cases every
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  year in probably just about every state. I know certainly in Alabama
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  we see a couple of dozen cases every year. That's true for
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  really all southern states. But as you know, what happened 6 or 8 weeks ago
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  is, is a really large outbreak that started in
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  the upper Midwest— Michigan, Ohio, West Virginia, Kentucky.
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  But now it's shown up in many different parts of the country, and there
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  are over 10,000 cases that have been documented, but probably
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  many thousands of cases also that we don't even know about.
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  We've had some of those outbreak cases here in Alabama.
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  That's also true for all of our surrounding sister states
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  in Florida and Georgia and other states next to us. But we are finally
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  starting to see those numbers go down just a little bit.
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  The best information we have is that the big outbreak was linked
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  to a certain type of lettuce that was used in fast food restaurants.
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  I'm sure you've heard that story. But, you know, not all the cases were— some
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  of the cases can't really be explained by that. And so it's
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  still a little unclear how all this happened all at once. But thankfully,
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  it is improving a little bit. So is there a way we
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  can defend ourselves against this parasite? Those of
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  us who are the end consumer, if you will, just remember that eating
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  raw food that comes out of the ground is going to put you at risk,
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  right? So be careful about raw fruits and vegetables
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  that you may consume at home. Make sure you wash them very carefully if
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  you can. The contaminated lots of lettuce that were associated with
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  this outbreak in the beginning, we know now are all past their sell-by
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  date. So, you really shouldn't be able to find
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  those on grocery shelves anymore. Ideally, grocers are getting rid of those,
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  but certainly some people may have products still in their home. And so,
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  we would ask you to take a look at your refrigerator,
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  compare those lot numbers with what's been posted, or if you just aren't
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  sure, go ahead and toss that and start over. But normally, with all
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  of these types of outbreaks, when people start being more careful about
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  washing things and about what they eat, then we do see them go away,
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  and that seems to be what's happening now. The latest is about
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  jalapeños carrying Salmonella. Would your advice
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  still hold about being careful about jalapeño peppers at this time?
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  Yeah, that's exactly the same. What we see now with jalapeños
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  and Salmonella infections is not that unusual to
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  see. We certainly do see things like that in most years. I think there's
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  a lot of increased interest in food-related intestinal infections
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  because of the cyclosporin outbreak we've had. And so this
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  salmonella story has gotten a lot of airtime, but I would say it's
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  actually not unusual. We do see food-related outbreaks from salmonella all
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  the time, and it's just one of the risks that you get from eating
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  foods that are eaten raw, particularly if somehow they're not washed.
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  Dr. Harris, let's switch gears. School is starting.
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  Now we hear conflicting information out of the White House
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  about childhood vaccinations. What can you tell
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  us? We're still trying to review the executive order that the president had and
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  figure out how that applies to us. Generally speaking,
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  it doesn't sound like it'll make a difference in our state anyway.
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  Parents in this state have a right to receive vaccine exemptions
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  if they choose to do that for their children, and they just come to the
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  health department and request that, and that's provided without them having to prove anything
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  or why they're doing that. The executive order talked about
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  breaking up these combination shots, like a measles,
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  mumps, rubella shot, into individual shots.
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  That's certainly something that people are studying. They're trying to figure
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  out if that would be feasible or kids would require more visits to
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  get more shots. The main fact, though, really delaying anybody adopting
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  this is that those individual vaccines that are only a
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  measles vaccine or only a mumps vaccine aren't actually manufactured
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  in this country. They're only— the combination MMR product is being manufactured.
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  And so in order to have what we would call a monovalent
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  vaccine or a single vaccine like measles vaccine,
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  it would require a vaccine company to manufacture that, to put it in clinical
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  trials, perhaps certainly to have approval by the FDA.
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  And those things can take quite a long time. So at this point,
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  the White House EO has not discouraged anybody from taking any
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  of the usual vaccines. It hasn't changed those recommendations,
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  and we are just waiting to see how this plays out and if
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  there will be these single-component vaccines available someday
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  in the future. It sounds like you're recommending talking with your pediatrician.
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  That's always the right answer, Carolyn. In public health, we make these recommendations
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  that we say are population health recommendations. We know
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  that if a population takes the MMR, then you don't
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  have the same measles transmission or whooping cough transmission.
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  Our patient at the health department is the population as a whole,
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  but that really doesn't say anything about any given individual
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  patient, right? A parent and their child and their pediatrician
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  make the right decision about what's correct for that child to receive,
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  and some children are allergic to certain vaccines, or some children may
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  have another reason they don't require it or shouldn't receive it. So, there are always
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  those individual-level clinical decisions that have to be made.
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  You know, that's always the right answer. If you need information about
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  your health or your child's health, talk to the healthcare provider that knows you and
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  your child the best. You mentioned measles and the news stories continue
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  to explode. What are your observations there?
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  Yeah, unfortunately, we're in the midst of the biggest measles outbreak
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  that our country has seen since the year 2000 or so.
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  We now have approaching 2,500 documented
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  cases of measles in 2026. So far this year. We are
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  on the lookout for that here in our own state. I know the state
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  of Florida and the state of Georgia have seen some measles transmission in those states.
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  In Alabama, we have not had any transmission from one person to
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  another of measles, although we have an Alabama resident who was
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  living out of state who contracted the measles and sort of
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  counts towards Alabama's totals. It put us on the map, but that was not actually
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  a case in a person who was residing here in the state at the time.
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  We do want to make sure that parents again remember to talk to
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  their pediatricians about what to do. The measles vaccine has been around for a long
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  time. It was created before I was even born, and you know,
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  I'm a gray-haired guy, and it's been safe and
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  effective for a long time. So we would just encourage people to talk to their
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  doctors, make sure they're making the right decision for their children.
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  And for adults who were vaccinated as children, are they
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  still protected? In most cases, the recommendation for measles
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  is that for those of us who were born in the year 1956
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  or earlier, you are considered immune and you don't need any
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  additional shots. And that's because measles was so widespread
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  until the mid-'50s that virtually everybody caught it. And once
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  you catch it once, you basically never catch it again. Starting in 1957,
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  when certain vaccines came out, people do have immunity,
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  that some of the early forms of the measles vaccine were
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  not as long-lasting or effective as the kind that we use today.
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  So again, it's a good idea to talk to your doctor about that,
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  but generally speaking, if you've received 2 measles vaccines
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  of the modern measles vaccine that we use, which has been around
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  since the late 1960s, then you're not going to need any additional measles vaccines.
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  Well, Dr. Harris, thank you for sharing the latest updates with us from
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  the Alabama Department of Public Health. It's great to
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  speak with you, Carolyn. It's always nice to join you. That was
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  State Health Officer Dr. Scott Harris,
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  and more information about the topics he discussed can be found at
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  the alabamapublichealth.gov website.
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  Thanks for joining us for In Focus, which is a podcast available
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  wherever you get your podcasts, and feel free to get
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  in touch at infocus@troy.edu.
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  I'm Carolyn Hutcheson, and this is listener-supported
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  Troy Public Radio.