This is the VOA Special English Health Report.

Every year, people from all over the world get information fromthe United States National Library of Medicine in Bethesda,Maryland. The library is part of the National Institutes of Health.It is the world's largest center of medical information. Doctors,scientists, teachers and historians use the library. So do peoplewho just want to know more about health and sickness.

Thousands of people visit the Library near Washington, D.C.Others get information by computer. For example, people can gethealth information from a National Library service called MedlinePlus. This service cannot identify or advise about individual casesof disorders. But it provides general knowledge about more thansix-hundred-fifty diseases and conditions.

A Medline Plus dictionary includes descriptions of medical words.For example, you might hear that someone has had an appendectomy. Inthe medical dictionary, you can learn that the person has had anoperation to remove a part of the intestine called the appendix.

Drug information on the site describes medicines. Suppose youwant to know the possible effects of taking the pain-killer aspirin.You can check a long list of drug descriptions. You can get MedlinePlus services through the National Library of Medicine's Web Site,w-w-w dot n-l-m dot n-i-h dot g-o-v. Information appears in Englishand Spanish.

The Library also offers a Web site especially for older adultsand their families. It is called NIH Senior Health, found at w-w-wdot n-i-h-s-e-n-i-o-r-h-e-a-l-t-h dot g-o-v. The National Librarycreated the site with the National Institute on Aging. The sitemakes it possible for people to find current information fromNational Institute of Health centers. For example, older people canlearn the latest news about the treatment of heart disease orosteoporosis, a bone disorder.

The site designers developed NIH Senior Health from Institute onAging studies about changes in the thinking abilities of olderpeople. These include understanding, learning, memory and ability tosee. Because of these changes, the site contains print that can bemade bigger and sharper. Information has been kept short. And a"talking" operation can speak the words.

This VOA Special English Health Report was written by JerilynWatson.