Yahoo! offers a great starting point for all things related to the 2001 flu season. A special section located at http://fullcoverage.yahoo.com/fc/Health/Flu_Season/ brings together many of the best resources available online:

Start with MSNBC’s "Influenza’s Reach Over Time," which traces the flu from 400 B.C. (Hippocrates) to 1997 (Hong Kong). The presentation is made in small, easy to swallow capsules. Go to http://www.msnbc.com/health.

You'll fully realize the potential seriousness of influenza after visiting "The American Experience: Influenza 1918," presented by PBS. The 1918 epidemic is covered in a thorough, yet user-friendly manner - broken into sections, accompanied by photographs, and delivered factually while maintaining a human focus. The American Experience can be found at http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/influenza/index.html.

As always, the CDC offers complete subject information. Although thorough, beginning with "Clinical Features of Influenza," laymen may find it dry and labored. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is located at http://www.cdc.gov.

However, the CDC also sponsors the National Immunization Program (NIP), a much more user-friendly website at http://www.cdc.gov/nip/flu. The NIP site is comprehensive and well organized, making information gathering less of a chore than the CDC site. Here also physicians can view the July 13, 2000 Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) on Supplemental Recommendations of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), for the most current recommendations for administering the flu vaccine to high risk groups and to others.

The National Foundation for Infectious Diseases website at http://www.nfid.org/library/influenza offers another thorough discussion of flu, geared to the layman. Although created through grants from Aventis Pasteur, Roche and Glaxo Wellcome, the site doesn’t appear to slant any information (even in its Treatment and Research sections) towards any proprietary products, nor make mention of any products throughout the site).

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