You heard it here first: Changing our food borne illness public notification process

November 13, 2015.Reading time 8 minutes.

Since June, we’ve written in this space about a spate of food borne illness outbreaks that have kept all hands on deck here at Public Health – Seattle & King County and at times across the state – the salmonella outbreak connected to pork from Kapowsin’s slaughterhouse, the E. coli O157 outbreak linked to food […]

Public Health meets with Japanese food safety delegation

November 6, 2015.Reading time 1 minute.

Today, members of our food inspection team and our epidemiology team met with a delegation of hygiene and food professionals from Japan to exchange ideas about food safety. The group, which consisted of representatives from government and industry, shared how food safety laws work at the local level in both countries and how food safety […]

Health officials say E. coli cases may be linked to Chipotle restaurants in Wash. and Ore. [UPDATED 11/25/15]

October 31, 2015.Reading time 6 minutes.

Want to keep track of this investigation? Check back here regularly, follow us on Twitter at @kcpubhealth or on Facebook. Update 11/25/15: Based on an updated case definition, King County’s current count of individuals tied to the E. coli outbreak has been reduced to four. No new cases have been identified in King County since […]

Hunting a haunting virus

October 30, 2015.Reading time 7 minutes.

As scary stories go, this one ranks high on Dr. Jeff Duchin’s list. The year was 1993, and he was serving as an Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) officer for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Dubbed CDC’s Disease Detectives, EIS officers are often first on the scene when a public health emergency occurs, helping public health […]

Court orders TB patient to comply with treatment

October 27, 2015.Reading time 6 minutes.

For what is believed to be only the eighth time in more than a decade, Public Health – Seattle & King County has taken the rare step of seeking a court order to detain a potentially contagious patient who resisted treatment for tuberculosis. On October 23, King County Superior Court issued an order for electronic home […]

Bats: Not so bad, but please don’t touch

October 2, 2015.Reading time 5 minutes.

Bats have an unfortunate reputation. A small, unscientific survey of our staff said they associate bats with “vampires,” “Mitzvah,” “Michael Keaton,” and “Nelson Cruz.” Clearly, we needed to learn more. So we sat down with our in-house expert, Public Health Veterinarian Beth Lipton, who reminded us that bats aren’t all bad, but you really shouldn’t touch […]