Journalist and Author
Thirteen cases of the NDM-1 superbug, which originated in New Delhi, have been documented in the United States. Superbug blogger and author Maryn McKenna reports how a hospital spread at least one of these infections.
A new Consumer Reports poll shows that 86 percent of shoppers in a nationally representative sample of 1,000 adults said they wanted meat raised without antibiotics to be available in their local supermarkets. Superbug blogger Maryn McKenna reports.
Nine-year-old student Martha Payne took photos of her school lunches in western Scotland, but had to shut down her blog because she’s now forbidden to take a camera into school. Superbug author and blogger Maryn McKenna reports.
I get this a lot: “I understand that the things you write about are important — but they’re so depressing. Couldn’t you write some, you know, good news, for a change?” So here you go: a solutions post for once, instead of another problem. (But I can’t promise to make a habit of it.)
As I said Wednesday would happen, I participated in a Twitterchat today about antibiotic-resistant foodborne illnesses arising as a result of agricultural antibiotic use. This is the subject of my investigative piece in the June issue of SELF Magazine. Chat participants were me and blogger and cancer survivor Lisa Bonchek Adams, with many constant readers […]
The World Health Organization has weighed in on the growing threat from antibiotic-resistant gonorrhea, saying in a statement this morning that the scourge requires “urgent action.” Superbug blogger and author Maryn McKenna reports.
The misuse of antibiotics in agriculture, particularly in livestock-raising, is creating antibiotic-resistant foodborne illnesses that are taking victims and their doctors by surprise. Superbug blogger and author Maryn McKenna sums up her latest investigative feature.
There’s been another development in the continuing court battle to get the US Food and Drug Administration to exert some control over agricultural use of growth-promoter antibiotics — and it arrives accompanied by some remarkably direct language from the US magistrate judge hearing the case. In a Memorandum of Opinion and Order that was filed […]
The global trade in food has become so complex that we’ve almost lost the ability to trace the path of any food sold into the network. And, as a result, we may also lose the ability to track any contaminated food, or any product causing foodborne illness. Superbug blogger and author Maryn McKenna reports.
What if a deadly epidemic was happening and almost nobody noticed? It’s no longer a hypothetical question, according to a new study of Chagas disease, a parasitic infection transmitted by blood-sucking insects. Superbug blogger Maryn McKenna explains how Chagas has become so widespread while remaining largely unrecognized.
I spent the end of last week at the latest iteration of the Sustainable Foods Institute, an intense two days of discussion that the Monterey Bay Aquarium (home of Seafood Watch, the guide to sustainable seafood choices) puts on every year to bring together journalists, advocates and chefs. The Institute takes place within Cooking for Solutions, […]
Regular readers will remember my outraged rant post from almost a year ago, reacting to the news that the Central Intelligence Agency faked a vaccination campaign in Pakistan as a way of getting close to Osama Bin Laden’s hide-out, hoping to prove his presence by using a vaccine needle to grab a sample of DNA. […]
Healthcare workers have steadily increased their prescription of last-resort antibiotics to treat multi-drug-resistant infections. Superbug author and blogger Maryn McKenna breaks down the potential implications of a new study about the trend.
A mother who lost her son to a deadly microbe infection is leading a public awareness campaign against the misuse of antibiotics, which encourages resistance to the drugs. Superbug blogger and author Maryn McKenna reports.
Attempts to track sexually transmitted diseases may have enabled the spread of drug-resistant gonorrhea. Superbug blogger and author Maryn McKenna explains how.
So if it seemed quiet in the blogosphere this week, it may be because most of science-writing’s all-stars (plus me) were in the same room at the University of Wisconsin, talking about subjects that make many people uncomfortable: vaccination, climate change, evolution. The occasion was a conference, “Science Writing in the Age of Denial,” and […]
So, these deadlines: They’ve been intense. (I know, I said last week I thought I was done. I was wrong. But now I think I’m done — though chairing a conference for the rest of the week, so still busy.) While I’ve been underwater, there has been literal tons of news on this blog’s core […]
Antibiotics used to brew alcoholic beverages are making their way into the animal farming industry by the ton. Superbug blogger and author Maryn McKenna unpacks the controversy behind booze’s hidden boost to drug-resistant diseases.
The few studies that have followed victims of foodborne illness for years show that later in life, they suffer higher-than-usual rates not only of digestive trouble, but of arthritis and kidney problems, as well as greater risk of heart attack and stroke. Superbug author and blogger Maryn McKenna reports.
Since I posted last night on the judge’s order that the Food and Drug Administration examine the safety of farm antibiotics — via hearings that the Food and Drug Administration scheduled, but never held, back in 1977 — a lot has happened. Here’s a round-up. The Natural Resources Defense Council, lead plaintiffs in the suit […]