On June 21, Galen Sekulich began feeling nauseous. She was clammy, her heart was beating fast and she had no appetite for her favorite foods.
She dismissed it as a worry and went to bed. At 2 o’clock in the night, the urge to vomit woke him up from his sleep. Some anti-nausea medications stopped the vomiting, but symptoms persisted for several days. The 33-year-old man was feeling dizzy and woke up drenched in sweat. She couldn’t keep food down.
“Every time I tried to eat, I had to go to the bathroom, or I wanted to throw up,” Sekulich told USA TODAY, and she began to worry she had stomach cancer. “I was honestly nervous.”
After a trip to the emergency room, a test confirmed he had cyclosporiasis, a parasitic infection spreading throughout the country.
Her cyclosporiasis symptoms ‘persisted for a long time’
Sekulich, who lives in Detroit, described the disease as a dangerous combination of diseases.
“It felt like I had COVID fatigue because my body felt so weak, but then it also felt like I had norovirus that wasn’t going away,” she said, adding that she still struggles to eat anything that isn’t a piece of toast, even more than two weeks after her illness began.
For many people, cyclosporiasis can cause frequent, watery diarrhea or explosive bowel movements, as well as cramps, swelling and low-grade fever, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
With other diseases, you start out improving, Sekulich explained, but with cyclosporiasis, it never goes away.
“It’s just stuck,” said the self-employed mother of three. “It’s really hard to be sick for two weeks… You can’t stand up because you can’t eat, and your body is so tired and fatigued.”
He said he lost 10 pounds in just five days due to the illness.
And while people are joking on social media about the disease causing rapid weight loss, Sekulich says it’s no laughing matter.
“It’s not healthy at all. It’s worrying,” he said.
To make matters worse, Sekulich is allergic to Bactrim, an antibiotic that is the primary treatment option for cyclosporiasis.
After dealing with insurance and availability issues, she was finally able to get her hands on the medication she needed this week, thanks to someone who followed her on social media.
“I’ve been blessed to have a community of women on social media who help support me,” she said. “What about those who don’t?”
Rising cases ‘eye-opening and worrying’
As she tries to recover, Sekulich’s experience has changed how her family eats.
“I spent $30 on produce, and then I found out about it, and I said to my son, ‘Oh, sorry, we’re not eating any fruit,'” she laughed, adding that they’ve been eating applesauce and canned fruit out of caution.
According to the Food and Drug Administration, cyclosporiasis is spread when people consume contaminated food or beverages, and the primary risk is from eating contaminated fresh produce.
Despite spending an hour talking with Michigan health officials, she still doesn’t know exactly what caused her infection. State health officials are still investigating other rising cases in the area.
However, Sekulich suspects the culprit may be grocery store salad or restaurant salad — the only things she ate aside from her baby, who remains healthy.
“It’s eye-opening and worrying that something like this could happen,” he said. “1,200 people are sick in Michigan and they still can’t figure it out.”
Reporting by Sarah Moniuszko, USA TODAY.