PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — From contaminated lettuce to strawberries with E. coli, Oregon has seen its share of food-related illnesses.
A museum documenting those outbreaks may be the only one of its kind in the world.
The International Museum of Outbreaks is in a tiny office inside the State Office Building in the Lloyd District “…where we house over 100 different exhibits about outbreak investigations that happened in the United States and some other countries as well,” Oregon Health Authority epidemiologist Hillary Booth said.
There are vegetables with botulism.
“These beets actually killed somebody in 2012,” epidemiologist Tasha Poissant said.
And the French bologna made in South Africa in 2018 that was “the single biggest listeria outbreak ever recorded to our knowledge,” Booth said.
Each exhibit is a study in food-borne illness, some deadly.
“We just want to educate, especially public health practitioners, about what they should be looking for when they’re doing outbreak investigations,” Booth said.
The museum was internationally renowned disease investigator Bill Keene’s idea. He was an investigator for the State of Oregon but worked on cases around the globe. He started collecting artifacts in 1993.
After his death in 2013, Keene’s colleagues kept the museum going in what was his office.
“One of our more famous outbreaks that was Oregon-only was related to strawberries that were grown in 2011 in several different areas in Oregon that made people sick with E. coli,” Booth said. “When the epidemiologist showed up at the strawberry field to assess the situation, there were deer eating strawberries in the field.”
They tested the deer scat and found it was positive. Case solved.
In central Oregon, followers of cult leader Baghwan Shree Rajneesh made more than 700 people sick in The Dalles by spreading salmonella on restaurant salad bars.
“That was happening in 1984, and it’s thought to be the first event of bio-terrorism in the United States,” Booth said.
Another salmonella outbreak in 2010 was associated with Umpqua milk. It turned out that the milk wasn’t contaminated but a crate-washing machine was, infecting the packaging.
Keene loved solving those mysteries.
“That’s part of what he imparted here, was to celebrate the successes of when we got it right,” Booth said.
The museum is not open to the general public but groups can see it by appointment. All the exhibits are cataloged on the Outbreak Museum website.
Watch: Video of Bill Keene explaining the International Outbreak Museum
