Monkeypox, Marshfield Clinic and the Internet: leveraging information technology for public health.

In the middle of May 2003, a three and a half year old girl from central Wisconsin presented for treatment of an infection that occurred after bites to her hands from a pet prairie dog. It appeared at first that this was just another case of bacterial cellulitis associated with an animal bite. The cellulitis would quickly resolve with antibiotics. This is a common scenario for physicians of Marshfield Clinic, a multi-specialty group practice that serves a largely rural population. However, as so often occurs in medicine, the seemingly straight-forward case takes an unexpected turn, and over the coming weeks a remarkable, if not thoroughly bizarre story unfolds.