Journalist and Author
A district judge in New York has ruled in favor of a coalition that sued the Food and Drug Administration in order to compel the agency to follow through on its 35-year-old attempt to exert control over antibiotics in animal feed known as “growth promoters” — tiny doses of antibiotics delivered in feed and water that are believed to stimulate the evolution of antibiotic-resistant organisms.
From bats and blood to bushmeat and booze, Superbug author and blogger Maryn McKenna is on the ground at the International Conference on Emerging Infectious Diseases reporting on the latest infectious-disease studies.
Not only are more people dying from vomit-inducing illnesses such as C. difficile, but tainted food imported to the U.S. seems to be fueling disease outbreaks. Superbug author and blogger Maryn McKenna reports.
The northeastern U.S. faces potentially “the worst year yet” for Lyme disease and other tick-borne infections because of little-noticed components of the disease’s complex ecology: acorns and mice. Superbug author and blogger Maryn McKenna reports.
When it comes to increasingly drug-resistant microbes such as Staphylococcus aureus, there’s an intricate link between pigs and their farmers. Superbug author and blogger Maryn McKenna reports on two new studies.
Three women have contracted dangerous infections through their dying pets, according to a new study, as their infections likely stemmed from a bacterium that lives benignly in the mouths of cats and dogs. Superbug author and blogger Maryn McKenna reports on the incidents.
When people contract the seasonal flu virus and devastating MRSA, or methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, the combination can be deadly. Superbug author and blogger Maryn McKenna reports on a new string of deaths in Maryland.
A new report on antibiotic resistance in animals, retail meat and people bears no good news: Strains of drug-resistant microorganisms are on the rise. Superbug blogger Maryn McKenna reports.
A new documentary movie about antibiotic drug resistance, appropriately called Resistance, is being release soon. Superbug author and blogger Maryn McKenna offers sneak peeks at clips of her interviews and those of others in the film.
Shrimp farms in South and Southeast Asia are essentially factory farms, with all that implies — including antibiotic overuse. Superbug blogger Maryn McKenna reports.
A nasty strain of drug-resistant bacteria called MRSA originated in humans but jumped to pigs on farms. There, it acquired a raft of resistance — and then jumped back to humans, according to a new study. Superbug blogger Maryn McKenna reports.
News from the World Health Organization isn’t good. Drug-resistant strains of tuberculosis are at the highest rates ever recorded. Superbug blogger Maryn McKenna reports.
I spend a lot of time here talking about the damage that bacteria can do, and how sick they can make you. I don’t spend much time talking about their collateral damage: the hospital stays, the unbelievable costs of care, the bewildering complexity of the American healthcare and insurance systems, and the disillusionment that encountering […]
A new report on chicken farming in Georgia contains some unsettling statistics about the spread of drug-resistant bacteria, foodborne illness, workplace conditions and other hidden costs.
Physicians have announced that the sexually transmitted disease gonorrhea threatens to become untreatable, thanks to the acquisition of antibiotic resistance. Superbug blogger Maryn McKenna reports.
A newly identified disease dubbed the Schmallenberg virus is moving rapidly through livestock in Europe, and it has authorities both worried and puzzled. Superbug blogger Maryn McKenna reports.
Why don’t we have a vaccine against MRSA, a dangerous disease of increasing concern? Superbug blogger Maryn McKenna reports.
A paper released recently, by the University of Iowa team that is the lone US research group tracking “pig MRSA” ST398, caused a ripple. (It came out while I was at ScienceOnline and it’s taken me a while to catch up.) The paper compares the occurrence of MRSA, drug-resistant staph, on various cuts of retail […]
The Indian government has announced that a totally drug-resistant form of tuberculosis doesn’t exist, and is putting pressure on physicians to say they made a mistake. Superbug blogger Maryn McKenna reports.
Type 1 diabetes — the autoimmune disease that begins in childhood and used to be called juvenile-onset diabetes — is on the rise around the globe. At this point, however, no one can quite say why.