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Urgent care centers have absorbed a national surge in gastrointestinal (GI) visits this summer, driven by a multistate cyclosporiasis outbreak. Urgent Care Consultants’ analysis of 3.9 million private urgent care visits across roughly 3,000 centers using the Experity EMR found GI complaints rose from 22.2 to 34.9 per 1,000 visits between July 2025 and July 2026—an increase of 57%. In the peak week of July 13, 1 in 24 patients presented with acute GI illness, against 1 in 44 in a typical summer. Severity varied sharply by state. Michigan visits were 445% above the prior year, followed by Illinois at +234%, Missouri at +137%, Kansas at +125%, and Indiana at +114%. Visits in other states beyond the identified outbreak were still up 53%. Volume crested the week of July 13 and was declining by July 20. Industrywide, the outbreak delivered an estimated 145,000 excess urgent care visits. Presentations included diarrhea most commonly, with diarrhea diagnoses up 97%, while nausea and vomiting rose 19%, according to Experity data. Few cases were confirmed at the point of care. Only 3.1% of GI visits received a cyclospora-specific test, and 91% of trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole prescriptions were written without one.
Latest numbers: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has confirmed a multistate outbreak traced to imported iceberg lettuce, reporting 6,707 laboratory-confirmed domestic cases of cyclosporiasis, with more than 11,500 additional cases that were not laboratory confirmed through July 28. It’s worth noting that CDC numbers lag behind state reporting, and health departments report the largest outbreak is centered in Michigan, with 10,077 cases as of July 29, far above the prevailing annual total of 40–50 cases.