What’s Causing Mystery Parasitic Illness?

 How Black Communities are Getting Sicker From Climate Change.

By Rosaland Tyler
Associate Editor
New Journal and Guide

A parasitic disorder is causing “explosive” diarrhea in several states this summer of extreme heat.

How much is the disorder related to climate change? And, is climate change more likely to harm Blacks and people of color?

As of last week, at least 20 people had been hospitalized in the U.S. with the parasitic disorder that causes explosive diarrhea. It has been traced back to a parasite that spreads through contaminated food.

Health officials are still studying these problems and have not blamed climate change. But the parasitic outbreak began after 2025 EPA changes prevented the agency from taking action against planet-warming pollution from tailpipes, smokestacks, and industries.

This means the EPA is not legally bound to crack down on pollution, at a time when Black neighborhoods are food deserts. And these neighborhoods disproportionately serve as sites for industries, highway construction, and hazardous waste dumping.

The new gastrointestinal illness, caused by a parasite,  has been on the rise in multiple states since May, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Since June 22, 2026, more than 170 cases of cyclosporiasis (“explosive diarrhea”) have been reported in southeast Michigan — up from 150 several days prior. That’s out of the norm for the state, officials say. “Michigan typically identifies 50 cases a year,” a spokesperson for the MDHHS said. 

The microscopic parasite is causing severe diarrhea and vomiting especially in Michigan, a major hotspot for the infection. According to the CDC, the parasite is spread when people consume food or water contaminated with infected feces. Michigan, New York, Illinois, and Texas have reported the highest concentrations of the illness. 

Exactly why is the parasitic infection striking more people as temperatures climb up to and beyond 100? 

“It’s about what happens when climate change and decades of disinvestment begin to erode the spaces and traditions that hold communities together, Black Enterprise Editor Diamond Spratling said in a recent editorial about the impact of increasingly hot temps in Black neighborhoods.

“It’s about the eldest lady in your neighborhood who can’t sit comfortably on her porch in the evening.”

“It’s about—the child whose playground is too hot to use. The family reunion forced indoors because the heat index is dangerously high. The neighbor who skips his daily walk because the temperatures feel unbearable.”

You can’t nail down or trace a single illness back to climate change, in other words, but some experts consider it the culprit.

“If your house catches fire, you call the fire department. Our planet is burning. EPA’s response? Do nothing,” said Dominique Browning, the co-founder of Moms Clean Air Force, a nonprofit focused on protecting children from air pollution. 

Since Blacks are more likely to live in food deserts, with high levels of air pollution, limited access to green spaces, and inadequate infrastructure for cooling, Black neighborhoods are simply hotter. Cooling stations pop up every summer in Black communities and vanish in the fall.

Two years ago, NBC News noted in a July 8, 2024 report, “In big cities, the heat hits hardest for people of color and low-income residents. In New York, Black residents die from heat stress at double the rate of white residents.”

Are Blacks more likely to feel the impact of climate change?

To answer this question, sort through the facts.

Heat islands are typically located in redlined neighborhoods. 

Black neighborhoods disproportionately house power plants, waste stations and highways that cause severe noise and air pollution.

Another fact surfaced in a 2022 Boston University analysis of 115 metropolitan areas from San Jose, California, to Louisville, Kentucky, and Hartford, Connecticut. The report showed air conditioning was less likely to be available in places with more residents who identify as either Black or African American or Hispanic or Latino.

Majority people-of-color neighborhoods have 33 percent less tree canopy than predominantly white neighborhoods. This can make them up to 13 degrees hotter (7 degrees Celsius) than neighborhoods 2 miles away.

Black residents are exposed to higher concentrations of pollutants such as particulate matter, ozone, and other harmful chemicals that contribute to respiratory illnesses like asthma, bronchitis, and other chronic health conditions.

Scientific American noted in a Sept. 19, 2023 report, titled, “Discrimination Has Trapped People of Color in Unhealthy Urban Heat Islands.”

“People of color, more than other groups, live in neighborhoods prone to excess heat and the illnesses that go with it,” it concluded.