Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Atlanta, Georgia
Wun-Ju Shieh, MD, MPH, PhD

Wun-Ju Shieh, MD, MPH, PhD; Natalie Dolan, MPH; Elizabeth White, Lisa M. Harper, MS; Cynthia Goldsmith, MS; Jeannette Guarner, MD; and Sherif R. Zaki, MD, PhD

Infectious Disease Pathology Activity, Division of Viral and Rickettsial Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Background: The Infectious Disease Pathology Activity (IDPA) serves as a scientific and technical resource at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The Activity develops, improves, evaluates, and applies special ultrastructural, immunohistologic, and nucleic acid probe technologies for detecting microbial agents in tissue specimens or tissue cultures. Using this expertise, IDPA assists with outbreak investigations, disease diagnosis and surveillance, and studies of the pathogenesis of infectious diseases. Many of the diseases encountered by IDPA are caused by emerging or reemerging pathogens, (e.g., hantavirus, West Nile virus), which may not be familiar to general pathologists. Therefore, IDPA has a need to efficiently distribute information about these diseases to practicing pathologists.

Design: An IDPA Web-based information site was created using CDC's guidelines and template. Webpage contents were selected on the basis of IDPA's mission, expertise, and experience. Primary tools used for page layout and image preparation were Microsoft FrontPage, Adobe Photoshop, and Ulead PhotoImpact. The Web site is being evaluated in-house, and formal posting is expected within the next several weeks.

Results: Several modules were developed for the heavily illustrated Web site, including detailed information on the pathology of various emerging infectious diseases with representative images, diagnostic tests with sample test results, guidelines for specimen submission, and interesting cases. A module will be added to evaluate users' information needs and comments for revising the site. The site contains a wealth of information related to infectious disease pathology and contents will be updated on a regular basis.

Conclusion: Pathology continues to be an essential and growing part of public health efforts at CDC. With increasing accessibility to the Internet, Web pages appear to be an ideal medium for information distribution and teaching purposes. The information contained in this site should prove useful for the general pathologist in keeping abreast of new and reemerging pathogens.