A university-affiliated Web site devoted to helping users identify trends in food poisoning has drawn some interest from across the nation but not much attention overall.

The Web site, www.rusick2.msu.edu, is run by officials at MSU's National Food Safety and Toxicology Center. It was established in November 2003, and project Coordinator Holly Wethington said after more than a year, it still only draws about 15 reports a day.

The Web site initially began to assist local health agencies, but Wethington said people outside those counties began finding the Web site on their own.

"We began to start advertising around Clinton, Eaton and Ingham counties and started to get some reports from different areas, even from outside of this county," Wethington said.

The site works by taking a 15-minute survey about the symptoms of food poisoning.

Users then enter data about what kind of food they ate before getting sick, and then they're able to compare data with other users to view the similarities between ailments. The site says the most common trends for sickness deal with the type of food, the source of the food and the amount of time it took to get sick.

Wethington said the site's lack of success is due to the small amount of people who know about it. She said it was great that people were using the site nationally, but she doubted the site was effective since there are so few people reporting.

The Web site initially was intended for the health departments of the three counties to check out trends of people becoming ill. Wellington said the site has been successful in this goal.

"We are just creating a database for health departments and looking for clusters of frequent outbreaks," Wethington said. "It's definitely a service for local health departments and the public to come in from wherever and report a suspected case of food poisoning."

But some people, such as CVS pharmacist Javad Banisafar, didn't even know the opportunity was available.

"We tell them to call poison control," Banisafar said of what he suggests to customers.

Education junior Janelle Odinga said she had never heard of the program, but she wouldn't use the Web site because it would be embarrassing to post such information on the Internet.

"I don't want them to know I'm sick," Odinga said. "What would I say, 'Hello, I've got the runs and a tummyache, thank you?'"

Staff writer Amy Davis contributed to this report.