ABSTRACT
Although the Web is a key resource for all aspects of disease information for the public, the patient and also the healthcare practitioner, it is particularly useful in drawing together what would otherwise be hard-to-find or hard-to-monitor information on rare diseases and disease outbreaks. The benefit of instantaneous access by specialist practitioners to information on the Web on the rarest of diseases or conditions has been documented in a letter to the BMJ. 1 Twentyfour hour access increases the availability of such valuable information, at times when it may be most required.
