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http:// --> Ashland, Oregon HOME Valley & State Sports Nation & World Opinion/Editorial Classifieds Business Columnists Obituaries Weather Archive Hot Topics Forum Photo Gallery Video Readers Polls Revels Etcetera Backpage O-Zone Special Sections Real Estate Guide Menu Guide Shakespeare Subscribe Contact Us Rate Card Place an Ad Online Games Movie Preview September 19, 2006 Oregon survey aroused spinach suspicion PORTLAND — A 400-question survey helped Oregon health officials unlock the mystery of the national E. coli scare. Melissa Plantenga, a research analyst who tracks food-borne diseases for the Oregon Department of Human Services, conducted the survey by phoning the five E. coli victims in Oregon. One question concerned bagged salad. "I have had very few people ever say yes, they had eaten bagged greens," Plantenga told The Oregonian newspaper. "But the demographic of the victims being women and over the age of 20 suggested a produce item." Last Wednesday, after logging four similar answers, she Googled "spinach and E. coli O157." She found a 2003 report of a poisoning in a nursing home and decided she might have something. She told Bill Keene, a state epidemiologist, who then contacted the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. "We e-mailed a picture of the DNA pattern to the CDC, just a series of stripes, and the CDC called us back about 10 minutes later and said, 'Your pattern looks an awful lot like what Wisconsin is looking at,'" said Paul Cieslak, manager of acute and communicable disease prevention at Oregon State's Public Health Division. Then Keene reached epidemiologists in Utah, New Mexico, and Wisconsin to let them know about the bagged spinach. Wisconsin, which had more cases than Oregon, had suspected green leafy vegetables, probably lettuce. Researchers there retraced their steps and found that a large number of patients had eaten bagged spinach. Other states determined the same thing. This wasn't the first time Plantenga uncovered the source of an outbreak. In 2004, she detected a salmonella poisoning pattern in raw almonds that forced Paramount Farms Inc., the nation's largest almond grower, to recall 13 million pounds of nuts. "I think it's helpful to have one Melissa Plantenga because if somebody mentions something a little off target, she catches it," Cieslak said. "That outbreak was cracked by that method, and so was this one." ------ Information from: The Oregonian, http:www.oregonlive.com i Leave a Comment: Advertisement: Advertisement: Paid Advertising Inkjet Printers Student Loans Water Filter Helzberg Diamonds Mortgage Calculator Security Systems Advertisement: Copyright © 2006 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers. All Rights Reserved.