Food Safety News published a first-person account from a woman who contracted E. coli from a spinach salad. The article explores how family, community, doctors, local health departments, and others could be more effective at communicating about food safety.
Here is an except about the author’s initial interaction with the local health departments:
Almost two weeks after I was home from my second hospital stay due to complications, the follow up call from the health department consisted of two questions — did I eat spinach and when was it consumed? While it is understandable that in the midst of a national outbreak the public health community must be as efficient as possible, the human connection and critical thinking was entirely missing from this interaction. What about questions like, did anyone else in my household eat the product? Did I still have the product? Where was it purchased? When was it purchased? How much did I consume? Did I need any additional information or resources?