Flathead health officer shares expertise in Dubai

Flathead County Health Officer Joe Russell recently shared his knowledge of food-safety practices at an international conference in Dubai, and got a crash course on the opulent culture of the United Arab Emirates during his down time.

From store shelves brimming with gold jewelry to parking garages filled with Rolls Royce, Ferrari and Maserati automobiles, signs of the good life of one of the wealthiest nations in the world were everywhere.

Following the March county Board of Health meeting, Russell shared his experience as a member of a team of experts who spoke at the Seventh Dubai International Food Safety Conference. The United Arab Emirates paid for his trip to the conference Feb. 21 to 23.

Based on his national work on foodborne disease, Russell was tapped to speak on food-safety inspections, investigative techniques and complaint-driven investigations. He said he quickly picked up on one cultural difference after telling a joke and receiving blank stares.

“They don’t get my sense of humor, my sarcasm,” he said with a laugh.

He described the men and women attending training as exceptionally attentive. Before this conference, Emirati food-safety inspectors tended to focus on case series that are descriptive rather than analytic. Russell used the analogy of inspectors taking reports of people getting ill, making an association to a certain restaurant, then performing environmental studies by testing food there.

In Dubai, he and the team from the Centers for Disease Control presented information on the United States’ practice of going the next step to perform cohort and case control studies.

These extra steps allow health officials in the U.S. to trace food poisoning beyond a particular food provider back to the source, such as cantaloupe from a particular farm.

According to Russell, Dubai inspectors regularly test food for pathogens whether randomly during inspections or during outbreaks, but don’t perform clinical studies on people.

“We know the gold standard is finding the pathogen in the person,” he said. “Just finding a pathogen in food does not mean it caused illness. It may not even be the right pathogen if they don’t know from a clinical study what they are looking for.”

With a country made up of 82 percent expatriates, the government doesn’t shrink from testing foreigners for communicable diseases. Russell showed the health board a map dotted with “fitness centers” where expatriates must go for testing.

“You have to carry a health card with you,” he said.

He came away impressed with one particular aspect of the government in Dubai. Russell noticed many posters about leadership with mottos such as “Let’s grow together.”

“These folks take organizational growth very seriously,” he said. “They do things that I think are important. To me, that’s heartening.”

Russell said he got to spend the third day doing some traveling. With local officials as his tour guides, Russell gained access to high-security buildings such as the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world at 2,700 feet and 160 stories.

His bird’s-eye view took in the royal gardens and palace. In another photo in a parking garage, Russell caught a red Ferrari with a license plate that tied it to a Saudi prince.

He also got a peek at the presidential suite of the Burg Al Arab, an amazing structure that resembles a wind-filled sail where the master suite rents for $23,000 a night.

His traveling included a visit to a gold souk, a collection of 250 shops that sell all manner of gold merchandise.

“It’s a very rich country and the Emiratis set themselves up to do very well,” he said.

For foreigners to open businesses, they must find Emirati sponsors and give them 51 percent of the business. In speaking with expatriates, Russell learned that some have supervisors who are Emirati with no education or knowledge in the area they manage.

If an Emirati man gets married, the government gives him a house. Citizens also receive free medical care.

Life in the United Arab Emirates has downsides, as Russell learned the first day when a dust storm struck. He was warned not to have his camera out for fear of damaging the lens.

He said the buildings have permanent big cranes installed for crews to wash the dust off windows after a storm.

Since returning, Russell learned of steps taken since the conference to improve food safety in Dubai.

“Two years ago, they wouldn’t have even considered looking at case-control studies or learning how to do cohort studies or doing clinical samples,” he said.

Russell learned that Dubai food-safety officials have identified a special laboratory that detects foodborne disease clusters and now plan to collect clinical samples.

“This is a direct offshoot of what we just did over there,” he said. “That’s how fast they work.”

In recent years, Russell has trained people across the country on food safety through a national association of health officials. He also was appointed chairman of a council working to improve responses to the rash of foodborne illnesses in this country.

Reporter Candace Chase may be reached at 758-4436 or by email at cchase@dailyinterlake.com.