Christina Hart was growing her online following as a Tennessee-based food reviewer when disaster struck − she came down with cyclosporiasis, the stomach-turning parasitic infection that’s been recently filling headlines.
Hart, 29, who hosts “The Locally Owned Series,” recently revealed to her nearly 160,000 TikTok followers that she tested positive for the illness, telling USA TODAY the experience was “just miserable.”
“That’s really the best word to sum it all up, was miserable,” she said.
At first, she thought it was just food poisoning or a stomach virus. Then it lasted over a week.
“That’s when I went to the doctor’s. I got tested. I saw the headlines of cyclosporiasis and I’m like: ‘I’m having those symptoms. I need to make sure I ask for that testing.’ Came back positive,” she said. “I was sick for three weeks with it. And then around the three-and-a-half-week mark, I started feeling better.”
‘You lose complete control’
Until she got the sickness herself, Hart said she really didn’t know the severity of it.
Across the United States, more than 10,000 cases of cyclosporiasis have been confirmed by the Centers for Disease and Control and Prevention in 47 states as of early August. In Michigan, the state that has led the U.S. case count, health officials also confirmed the first two deaths connected to the ongoing outbreak.
“The timestamps in between having to go (to the bathroom) was a little extreme for me,” she explained. “That kind of stopped me from just living my everyday life because I was scared to go out in public. I’m like, ‘What if I have to go?’ Because you lose complete control. It’s not a fun experience … you will need to be near a restroom if you have it.”
For many, cyclosporiasis can cause frequent, watery diarrhea or explosive bowel movements, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as well as nausea, cramps, bloating and low-grade fever.
Now, she feels “fantastic” and “completely back to normal,” but described the sickness as “very uncomfortable,” explaining she dealt with a lot of bloating despite not eating much.
She also lost 17 pounds throughout the ordeal.
Parasite ‘flipped everything upside down’
Hart never intended to become a local influencer. When she got sick, she worried it would jeopardize things.With a posting schedule that went from two to three episodes per week to nothing, she worried people would lose interest.
“A lot of my viewers had reached out to me via message and were like, ‘Hey, where’d you go? What happened?’ And it’s not the most pleasant thing to be like, ‘Well, I’m stuck in the bathroom’ to everybody,” she said.
Hart said having to put her show on pause was “kind of depressing,” adding a mental toll to the physical one she was already dealing with due to the illness.
But to her surprise, coming forward about the “whole parasite thing flipped everything upside down and then launched it into even more success,” she explained.
“A lot of doors kind of opened unexpectedly through this miserable experience, so I’m grateful for it,” she said. “I hated the whole experience, but now I’m finding the blessing in (it).”