No Paywall

Dear Friends, Attendance at the International Meeting on Emerging Diseases, organized by ISID and ProMED, has never been better and I was pleased to see so many of our colleagues there. One of the things I think about most is the importance of building a global community that fosters the free exchange of information about infectious disease research and, perhaps more importantly, how we've handled disease events. Focusing our cumulative body of knowledge built from lessons learned and evolved best practices is the most effective response to infectious disease outbreaks I know. But many of our colleagues lack the resources to attend meetings like IMED and may not have the opportunity to attend sessions on cutting edge approaches, learn from colleagues from all over the world, and meet with peers to share experience and discuss which techniques and protocols are most effective in the environments in which they work. For these individuals ProMED-mail has a particular relevance. Intentionally low-bandwidth, deliberately concise and to the point, and expressly provided without cost, ProMED brings the collective knowledge of clinicians, researchers, epidemiologists, veterinarians, and plant biologists to over 82,000 infectious disease practitioners across the globe. Make no mistake, ProMED is no substitute for the opportunity to join in face-to-face discussion at scholarly meetings. But it does provide an important avenue for sharing news, pointing toward new ideas and approaches, and embracing even our most isolated colleagues in a global conversation about infectious disease surveillance, prevention, and care. If you agree that this is vital to health and wellbeing around the world, please support ProMED-mail today. ProMED is offered without charge precisely so that everyone with a need for or interest in unbiased infectious disease information can access it. We don't have a paywall and we hope we never will. But we can't provide global surveillance and expert commentary without your support. Paradoxically, we can't make ProMED-mail free for everyone, unless you pay for yourself.Please, make a donation for yourself and, while you're at it, make one for a friend. Sincerely, Larry Madoff, MD Editor P.S. Electronic payments by credit card or PayPal make it possible and cost-effective to make donations of any size no matter where you live. Give what you can afford, but please donate to ProMED now.

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