Terrorist Use of Biological Weapons - Deadly Cultures: Biological Weapons Since 1945 - page 290

• Customer cases declined dramatically when salad bars were closed, de-
spite the fact that ill employees continued to work.
These findings indicate clearly that the outbreak was due to consump-
tion of food from salad bars, which had been contaminated after it left the
kitchen. All but two of the definitely implicated restaurants had salad
bars. One of the two remaining restaurants clearly had cases as a result of
transmission of disease from an ill employee (infected at another restau-
rant), and secondary transmission is also probable for the other one.
Yet state and national health officials did not draw the obvious conclu-
sion, and it is not clear why. Apparently the preliminary data analysis did
not very clearly identify some critical findings. A preliminary report filed
by the Oregon deputy state epidemiologist claimed, in contrast to later
analysis, that some cases were clearly caused by contamination in the
kitchen, and that in many cases employees were ill before customers. 9
The report went on to state that intentional contamination had been con-
sidered but rejected because there was no evidence for it, and concluded
that infected food handlers had been the cause of customer cases. The
source of their infection was speculated to be unidentified common con-
tacts in the community.
The later CDC accounts of the outbreak, a limited-distribution internal
report and the published version (both written after it became clear that
the causation was deliberate), claimed that deliberate contamination was
rejected largely because it didn't fit expectations of motivation and be-
havior: no motive was apparent, no one had claimed responsibility or is-
sued any demands, a single attack could not explain the pattern of infec-
tions, and no disgruntled employees were identified.
It should be remembered that this event occurred before there was
widespread concern over bioterrorism, and it is perhaps understandable
that public health personnel were reluctant to draw such a controversial
conclusion on the basis of epidemiological evidence alone. It is unlikely
that there would be any such hesitancy today.
The Rajneesh
The salmonellosis outbreak occurred during an increasingly contentious
stay in Wasco County of a commune organized around the East Indian
guru Bagwan Shree Rajneesh. The Bagwan (“enlightened one”) had