The resurgence of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy, or "mad cow disease," in the European Union raised eyebrows of economists and animal science professionals, alike. The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) has posted several online documents on BSE. This resource, also from USDA, is a FactSheet on BSE.

Visitors to this Web site from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) will find a current and reliable source of information about Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). The FAQs section offers a general overview of the disease and recent outbreak -- a good starting point for finding the facts behind the headline news. The site also offers recent CDC guidelines and recommendations geared toward...

Drawing on new and rather novel computer-aided mapping programs, scholars have been able to bring together a number of disparate data sources that deal with a diverse set of disciplines. One such project has recently appeared online, and it is called HEALTHmap. Created by a team of researchers based at the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences & Technology, the project brings together aggregate...

The National Immunization Program of the US Centers for Disease Control provides this professionally-oriented manual, originally used in conjunction with a satellite video conference on the topic. At present, four of the five sections of the manual are available online. The heart of the manual consists of its fourteen disease-related chapters, covering diphtheria, hepatitis, influenza, measles,...

Health and science educators may be interested in Morbus Delirium, an interactive educational game created by the Montreal Science Centre and the Virtual Museum of Canada. In this game, young learners explore epidemiology by confronting a mysterious pathogen impacting their community. To do so, learners take on the role of a biologist working at the Montreal Science Centre to create a pair of...

The July 2003 issue of Smithsonian Magazine includes a feature article about the West Nile Virus. The article offers an in-depth look at the work of a group of scientists as they "race to develop vaccines against the scourge while others probe the possible lingering effects of the mosquito-borne infection." The 7-page articles may be downloaded free of charge. The site also includes links to...

The Supercourse website contains thousands of lectures on global health and prevention "designed to improve the teaching of prevention." Their network includes174 countries, and is available in no less than 30 languages. The site is located at the University of Pittsburgh and its core developers include Ronald LaPorte, Faina Linkov, Mita Lovalekar, and Eugene Shubnikov. It's a tremendous...

The Global Health Network, an Internet "global training programme in public health," directed by Ronald E. LaPorte of the Graduate School of Public Health at the University of Pittsburg, and Shunichi Akazawa of the World Health Organization, among others, has recently released this new online Epidemiology course. The course consists of seventeen annotated slide based lectures at this time,...

Created by dedicated staff members at the World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Center at the University of Pittsburgh, Supercourse is "a repository of lectures on global health and prevention designed to improve the teaching of prevention." The group's network of experts includes over 56,000 scientists in 174 countries who have produced well over 5,000 lectures in 31 languages. It's quite...

This electronic book from the National Academies Press (NAP) presents recommendations to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) from the Committee on Smallpox Vaccination Program Implementation. The committee -- members of the Board on Health Promotion and Disease Prevention, Institute of Medicine -- focuses on two main issues: Considerations for next steps in the pre-event vaccination program, and...