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• Julie Wicklund

When people in Washington state get sick from eating or drinking contaminated food or water, there’s a good chance that Julie Wicklund knows about it. Wicklund, a DOH epidemiologist spends her days tracking the course of foodborne and waterborne diseases in Washington.

Wicklund works in the Communicable Disease Epidemiology Division of DOH and oversees the statewide surveillance of foodborne or waterborne diseases like salmonella, e-coli, shigellosis, giardia and norovirus. The Communicable Disease Epidemiology Division identifies disease patterns and identifies and responds to outbreaks of communicable diseases.

When foodborne illnesses occur, local health departments conduct full investigations to discover the cause and the size of the outbreak. Wicklund and the Epidemiology staff are available to assist local heath in many ways including consulting, developing tools, helping local health with investigations, participating in the investigations directly and coordinating response multiple county outbreaks.

Wicklund takes what she has learns from each outbreak and works closely with the staff of the Food Safety program helping to develop food safety training for local health jurisdictions, other epidemiologists and the food production and food service industries.

"I love disease investigation. It’s like a big puzzle that has a beginning and an end," said Wicklund. She also enjoys the diversity of working with a variety of people from different disciplines and multiple agencies and divisions.

For more information about food safety page is available at www.doh.wa.gov/ehp/sf/default.htm and information about specific disease can be found at www.doh.wa.gov/a-z.htm

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