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This editorial notes that health information and the current information technology developments can impact positively on health in developing countries. In order to benefit from this information, developing countries must invest strategically in information production, gathering, storage, dissemination, and public health literacy promotion

The recent global outbreak of SARS provides an opportunity to study the use and impact of public health informatics and population health technology to detect and fight a global epidemic. This includes the Internet, but also other technologies such as wireless devices, mobile phones, smart appliances, or smart homes. Some of the technologies brought forward during the SARS epidemic may have been primarily motivated by marketing efforts, or were more directed towards reassuring people that "something is being done," ie, fighting an "epidemic of fear." To understand "fear epidemiology" is important because early warning systems monitoring data from a large number of people may not be able to discriminate between a biological epidemic and an epidemic of fear. The need for critical evaluation of all of these technologies is stressed

This case study explores pastoralists' traditional natural resources mangement practices and their sources and channels of information. It aims to contribute to the development of demand-led extension and advisory services for nomadic herders in Eritrea, on the premise that sustainable development programming builds on indigenous systems of communication and information diffusion

This brief guide is designed to help community foundations establish and maintain resource centres. It argues that information management is critical to the success of organisations, as libraries and resource centres provide access to information to staff and boards of governance and help maintain a high standard of performance, while also representing the institutional memory of an organisation. The document outlines some of the issues that need to be addressed both in the planning and in the implementation phases. Topics include budget, staff, space, scope of the collection and collection management, acquisition, services and access, and classification of materials

Chronic diseases and socio-environmental conditions are today's leading health problems. Rapidly changing diseases patterns are linked to changing lifestyles, which include diets rich in sugar, widespread use of tobacco and increased consumption of alcohol. In addition to socio-environmental conditions, oral health is highly related to the mentioned lifestyle factors which are common risks to most chronic diseases. Oral diseases qualify as major public health problems due to their high prevalence and incidence. As for all diseases the highest burden of oral diseases is on the disadvantaged and socially marginalised populations. Traditional treatment is extrememly costly and not feasible or possible to most low-income and middle-income countries. The WHO Global Strategy for the prevention and control of non-commincable diseases and the common risk factor approach is a new strategy to managing prevention and control of oral diseases. This document outlines the current oral health situation at the global level and the strategies and approaches for better oral health in the 21st century