Preparing for the next pandemic

One of the more specialized news letters I subscribe to is ProMED digest. It is a news letter that posts at least daily about recent outbreaks of known and unknown deceases in either humans, animals or plants.

Each post contains 3-6 reports, typically from a local source somewhere around the globe, followed by comments by the ProMED staff. A report may cover updates on the avian flu in Indonesia, a rabies case in Siberia or doixin poisoned meat ex Ireland.

I used to read everything, which was great in getting to know more about all kinds of creepy germs. Nowadays I admit I scan the headlines and only read the odd bit that catches my interest (rabies, out-breaks geographically near and new strange viruses from the tropical zone). I carefully archive every issue, as quite a few of these things make head line news. ProMED beats the average daily news paper both in timeliness and professional detail.

The organization has 30 part-time editors, moderators and technical staff. It is very professionally done, and I believe the majority of the subscribers are in the medical field or in some way closely related to it.

–Jesper Högström