Mehmood Shah  ( Third Year, The Aga Khan Medical University, Karachi. )

Centers of Disease control and Prevention, with its headquarters in Atlanta, is the most highly reputed health care agency in the world. Those of you who have seen the movie “Outbreak” must have seen the hi-tech labs of the CDC.CDC’s Virus hunters are a legend in Africa for their work on hemorrhagic fevers. Their website, http://www.cdc.org. is as good as their state-of-the-art level four Laboratories. Frequent visitors will find that almost every month or sometimes twice a month a new topic is chosen for Spotlight which is the first hyperlink you find on the site. They also give free subscription to their weekly newsletter also find a search option which lets you search any health related topic of your choice. The search results are impressive, not only the research done by CDC is given but also oter important links about the topic of your choice are listed. You can also download free software foryour needs like Epi info used for statistical analysis in Epidemiology of diseases. The site also provides a link for travelers which has upto date information on Endemics and Epidemics in all parts of the world. CDC prevention guidelines which every General practitioner should know am also part of the site. For the people interested in outbreaks, epidemics and prevention of diseases, this Website is a gold standard.
Web Tip: Before using a search engine for finding Organizations and Universities try to use www. name of organization.org. Universities have. edu at the end whereas most sites use.com. For example the website of The Aga Khan University is www.aku.edu. Similarly WHO website is www.who.org. Some use abbreviations, some use full names.