# 2583
Regular visitors will notice I've been tinkering with the site again, trying to make some of the resources in the side bar easier to access.
First, I've added Joel's excellent blog Preparedness and Response to the blogroll. But the most noticeable change is the addition of a new category on my sidebar:
Specialty News Sources
While I've had these links under flu blogs for quite some time, I felt they deserved a category of their own.
As a blogger, I'm constantly scanning the flu forums, the news feeds, and yes . . .the specialty news blogs, for information to write about. These bloggers do a terrific job of finding, translating, and posting reports from all over the world.
The Bird Flu Information Corner bills itself as a weblog developed based on collaboration work between Kobe University, Japan and Institute of Tropical Disease, Airlangga University, Indonesia in bird flu research field.
Frankly, this is something that we in Flublogia have been hoping for, for a long time. A local, boots on the ground, reliable source of information from Indonesia.
Ma Yingshen over at Chen Qi has been doing a terrific job collecting news from all over the world on many different emerging disease threats. Her work collecting and posting information on the Cholera outbreak in Zimbabwe has been outstanding.
Last, but certainly not least, is Pandemic Information News, for which we have Commonground and Treyfish to thank. Both are well known newshounds on the flu forums, who between them donate countless hours every month to finding, and translating, foreign language news items on pandemic influenza and other emerging infectious diseases.
I know I'm not alone in expressing thanks to these hard working newshounds/bloggers.
I find it particularly encouraging that we are seeing more international blogs and information sites.
Bird Flu Information Corner comes, of course, from Indonesia - while Chen Qi comes out of the Netherlands. Zone Grippe Aviaire H5N1 en français comes out of Quebec, and Zenobia's blog The Egyptian Chronicles, which covers a variety of topics - including bird flu - comes from Egypt.
Emerging infectious diseases, including pandemic influenza, are a worldwide concern. The Internet is providing us with ways to share information, and opinions, that fifteen years ago would have been unheard of.
Over the past year, I've also noticed a decided shift in the demographics of my readership, with more and more international visitors finding their way here.
A year ago, 75% of my readers hailed from the United States.
Today, 40% of my readers come from outside the United States. On average, I get visitors from more than 70 nations each month.
That is extremely gratifying, and humbling, to know.
AFD Country Share of visitors for December 2008
My thanks, and Season's Greetings to all of my visitors, and to all of the bloggers, forum members, and newshounds who combined are making it possible to disseminate and share information about emerging infectious diseases to people around the world.
