U.S. poop parasite is familiar Ukraine nightmare
A parasite outbreak spooked the U.S. for a week. In Ukraine, contaminated water happens every winter when Russia turns off the power, causing the same effect.
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Author’s Note:
Sometimes illnesses strike so suddenly that it’s impossible to prepare for them. This is especially difficult during war when places like medicine warehouses come under attack, supply chains are disrupted, and attacks on infrastructure leave the country without power for hours on end.
Support our team so that stories like these can reach a wider audience, ensuring that the world doesn’t forget or downplay the impact of this war.
OUR LEAD STORY:
KYIV, Ukraine — When I looked at the clock, it was 5 a.m. I had spent the last four hours trying unsuccessfully to get my 6-year-old daughter Daria back to sleep after she woke me up from vomiting.
She hadn’t been feeling well since the night before. She refused to eat, spent a long time lying in bed — something she had never done before — and fell asleep early without her usual bedtime story. I was concerned, but I attributed it to her being tired after another sleepless night due to the latest Russian shelling.
I wrung out the stinking rag to wipe up another batch of vomit on the floor next to the bed. Just a couple of hours earlier, I had tried to change the sheets that now lay in the corner, only for them to get dirty again almost immediately.
I was certain that something unusual was happening. And just a few hours later, I would be told that I wasn’t the only one. In fact, the pediatric gastroenterology unit at the children’s clinic was overflowing with kids exhibiting similar symptoms.
A week ago, a similar situation unfolded across the United States, hit by a wave of intestinal illnesses caused by a microscopic parasite. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), nearly 7,000 people in the U.S. may have been infected with this pathogen.
The outbreak has spread to 34 states, with Michigan being hit hardest, where 3,700 cases have been recorded. Taco Bell voluntarily removed certain ingredients and replaced them within 24 hours in some states, and Americans are being cautious about eating greens at other cafes and restaurants.
For Ukraine, however, such outbreaks are nothing new. They occur periodically, though the causes are far less peaceful and obvious.
According to the CDC, the incidence of intestinal infections in Ukraine accounted for 41.8 percent of all infectious diseases in January 2026, when Russian attacks severely damaged Ukraine’s power grid and left most regions without electricity. This winter, the Ministry of Health’s Public Health Center explicitly cited power outages caused by Russian attacks on energy infrastructure, as the main reason for these statistics.
Maintaining proper refrigeration temperatures becomes difficult or even impossible when the power supply is cut off. Municipal sewage treatment plants, which are supposed to purify water, cease to function amidst power outages, creating the risk of untreated sewage being discharged directly into the environment.
I have a fairly long history of my own health issues, including cancer and chronic illnesses, which is why every time Daria gets sick, it triggers a wave of anxiety in me. She had a cold, chickenpox, and the flu, but I’m lucky she really isn’t prone to getting sick. She eats quite well, and almost never complains of any pain.
Last winter, she began to understand for the first time what an air raid siren really was, and to perceive it as more than just a roaring alarm that occurs from time to time. Only recently did she put together the pattern of the lights going out after big attacks.
Attacks on energy infrastructure reached a record scale this winter, surpassing levels seen since the start of the full-scale war. Between 2022 and 2024, Russia launched approximately 2,800 missiles and drones at Ukraine’s energy sector. That number rose to 12,800 between 2025 and early 2026 alone.
In January 2026, Russian strikes knocked out more than half the country’s power generation capacity. In Kyiv and many other regions, that meant residents went without electricity for 14 to 16 hours a day, which is more than half a day.
I didn’t realize that long power outages, which sometimes lasted more than 20 hours a day, could cause water treatment plants to malfunction. In fact, I’m not even sure if I realized that water treatment plants need electricity, or that they don’t have backup power sources.
The capital’s drinking water comes from two stations: the Desnianska plant and the Dniprovska plant. The water is drawn into the system through intake troughs and pipelines. It then goes into settling tanks and rapid filters.
At the other end of the system is the Bortnytska Aeration Station, which is the only large wastewater treatment complex serving Kyiv and the surrounding region. It serves roughly 4 million people and processes up to 2 million cubic meters of sewage a day. The biological stage uses bacteria that need a constant supply of oxygen. This oxygen is pumped in by electric compressors. If the power is cut, the compressors stop. The bacteria that clean the sewage die off and untreated waste may be discharged into the environment.
I’m not sure when I first heard about possible problems with water. Just to be safe, though, I switched the water my family used for brushing their teeth to bottled water.
In any case, my daughter wasn’t spared. One day, she came home from preschool feeling weak. She refused to eat, went to lie down, and fell asleep early. Then, during the night, she woke up with a fever and vomiting.
I quickly realized that this was not an ordinary case of food poisoning. I tried to give Daria medication, but it didn’t stay in her stomach for long. I promptly took her to a pediatrician, who referred us to the gastroenterology unit at the hospital.
The hardest part about children’s hospitals is hearing the other children cry. The unit where I was staying had very thin walls and wooden doors leading to the patient and treatment rooms.
Terrifying screams came from behind the door — the kind of crying that triggers our primal instincts to protect.
Kids don’t understand what’s happening to them, and they’re afraid of needles. They find themselves in unfamiliar places with strangers trying to administer a shot, set up an IV, or give them unpleasant-tasting medicine. No surprise they’re screaming.
Daria was very weak, yet fully aware of her surroundings. She was brave and isn’t afraid of needles, but she is still a child who moves around a lot, even when she’s weak.
The IV needle, which was supposed to deliver glucose to her frail body to prevent her from going hungry or becoming dehydrated, shifted due to her squirming. This caused fluid to leak outside the vein. Her arm was so swollen that the nurse had to cut open her sweater to replace the IV.
In the American outbreak, CDC data shows that the youngest confirmed patient is two years old. Physicians are taking pediatric cases seriously enough that clinical guidance was published for pediatricians in the middle of the outbreak, urging them to maintain a low threshold for suspecting Cyclospora in any child with watery diarrhea that lingers or recurs rather than writing it off as an ordinary stomach bug.
Daria recovered quickly after she was diagnosed with rotavirus. The clinic and illness made her review the rule about washing her hands before meals and after coming in from outside, and take it more seriously.
No one knows when a situation like the one in the U.S. will end or happen again. The investigation is still ongoing. On July 17, 2026, the CDC and the FDA identified the likely source as shredded iceberg lettuce.
The company voluntarily recalled the lettuce from the U.S. market after epidemiological and traceback data confirmed that it was contaminated with Cyclospora and was making people sick. Since then, no new positive product samples have been found, suggesting that the contaminated supply chain may have been cut off.
However, the outbreak itself hasn’t ended, and the CDC’s official cyclosporiasis season doesn’t end until August 31.
Even less is known about the sneaky ways in which a peaceful, developed city can change when war comes.
Beyond sheltering and following all safety rules, I don’t know how to protect my child or myself from the hardships that are all too common during wartime. I’m sorry her generation is forced to endure such difficult circumstances at a young age.
“Mom, the cat is throwing up,” Daria said the other day. “Maybe he needs to wash his paws before eating, too?”
Interested in more coverage about health during wartime? Take a look at these stories:
War ruined my lifesaving medicine
Surge of childhood diabetes due to wartime stress
Ukraine’s HIV patients face crisis: Trump aid halt
Ukraine’s pioneering virtual reality PTSD therapy
Author’s Note:
Sometimes illnesses strike so suddenly that it’s impossible to prepare for them. This is an especially difficult challenge during wartime when medicine warehouses are destroyed, supply chains are disrupted, and attacks on infrastructure leave the country without power for hours on end.
Support our team so that stories like these can reach a wider audience, ensuring that the world doesn’t forget or downplay the impact of this war.
THE LATEST NEWS AT THIS HOUR:
By: Oleksandra Poda
Good morning to readers; Kyiv remains in Ukrainian hands.
RUSSIA STRUCK A KYIV MILITARY TRAINING GROUND: On the afternoon of July 24, Russia launched a ballistic missile strike on a private military training ground in the Bucha district in the Kyiv region, where an exhibition of defense weaponry was taking place. A large number of representatives from the domestic and foreign defense industry had gathered at the site. As a result of two ballistic missile strikes, at least 10 people were killed, and at least dozens were injured to varying degrees. Twenty-seven private homes and 44 vehicles were damaged.
Moscow publicly claimed responsibility for the strike, stating that it deliberately targeted the exhibition where drones used to strike civilian targets within Russia were being demonstrated.
U.S. USED UKRAINE-TESTED DRONE IN IRAN: This week, for the first time during the conflict with Iran, the U.S. successfully deployed the Merops anti-drone interception system to destroy an Iranian Shahed drone. This system has been deployed in Ukraine since June 2024 against Russian versions of the Shahed.
Merops is an interceptor drone costing about $15,000 per unit (compared to $30,000-$50,000 for a Shahed). The system uses artificial intelligence for navigation and autonomous interception.
The U.S. Army has purchased 13,000 Merops units and deployed them at several locations throughout the region, including areas with no U.S. personnel.
DAY 9 OF PROTESTS IN UKRAINE: On July 24, Ukrainians took to the streets again in Kyiv and other cities, demanding that Mykhailo Fedorov be reinstated as defense minister. On July 22, Zelenskyy had already partially met their demands by dismissing Commander-in-Chief Syrsky and appointing General Drapaty to replace him.
Zelenskyy had previously stated that he had offered Fedorov a “prominent position in the government” in the technology sector, but Fedorov declined, believing that it would be impossible to implement his reforms in any other role.
CAT OF CONFLICT
Compot the cat has strong opinions about Justin Bieber performing for the World Cup final.
Stay safe out there.
Best,
Oleksandra
Another superb story!
Compot and I share the same opinion about Justin Bieber. (Thank you for that picture, Oleksandra, that made me LOL!)