Update

The early months of 2003 provided us with an impressive demonstration of the speed with which scientific data, analyses and trend-spotting in world public health can be communicated and pooled electronically among cooperative governments and public health officials… in this instance, tracking a newly-discovered infectious disease called SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome). Additionally, the power of the Internet to organize and disseminate such critical health data to clinicians and laypeople - in real time - provides permanent confirmation that in this post 9/11 world, disease surveillance, disaster planning and emergency response has been given a new higher priority by international agencies and governments around the globe. Following is a short list of key domestic and international public health sites:

· U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC): Public Health & Emergency Preparedness Response, at: http://www.bt.cdc.gov/index.asp

· CDC National Center for Infectious Diseases - Travelers Health at http://www.cdc.gov/travel/ then click on “Outbreaks”.

· CDC - News Archives Page http://www.cdc.gov/od/oc/media/archives.htm

· CDC - SARS page http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/sars/index.htm lists information in English, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, French and Spanish. MMWR is collecting data and publishing surveillance reports on SARS; one such report, published in May 2003, can be viewed at: http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5217a4.htm

· World Health Organization (WHO) – Communicable Disease Surveillance & Response http://www.who.int/csr/en/ and WHO - Key Data by Countries: http://www.who.int/country/en/

· International travelers may want to check out the information available on these sites before leaving the United States: Department of State-Travel and Living Abroad: http://www.state.gov/travel/. The Bureau of Consular Affairs lists “hot spots” and travel warnings: http://travel.state.gov/ International Travel & Health from WHO, at: http://www.who.int/ith/ (use menu on the right).

· Library of Congress Federal Research Division - Country Studies: http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/cshome.html

· Get breaking international news summaries from the Google News Page, at http://news.google.com and Eureka Alert http://www.eurekalert.com then click on “medicine & health”.

· CDC sponsors PHIL (Public Health Image Library), an archive of their photographs, audiovisuals, illustrations or animations, both contemporary and historical at: http://phil.cdc.gov/phil/default.asp

· Try UCHC’s own PathWeb, a free online pathology database of human organ systems, at: http://pathweb.uchc.edu/

· Federation of American Scientists (FAS) offers a different perspective on things: http://www.fas.org/

· Rand Corporation, a nonprofit research institution, has a number of publications to review on Terrorism and Global Health Threats, at http://www.rand.org/terrorism_area/

· Locally... Connecticut State Dept. of Public Health Online, at: http://www.dph.state.ct.us/

· “Bioterrorism” Links, maintained by staff of Connecticut Health, a UCHC department, provides a searchable list of local epidemiologists and clinical staff trained in emergency response, at: http://www.connecticuthealth.org/bioterrorism/bioter_resources.asp

· A truly one-of-a-kind educational site from University of Pittsburgh, called “Supercourse: Epidemiology, the Internet and Global Health”, can be accessed at http://www.pitt.edu/~super1/

· Finally, my own list of “Epidemiology & Public Health Sites”, used a class handout for an MPH class taught at UConn Health Center, offers additional links to global public health and statistical sources, at: http://library.uchc.edu/eduoff/episites.html

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Last Updated: February 26, 2008