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Maryn McKenna. Superbug: The Fatal Menace of MRSA. New York: Free Press, 2010. ix + 271 pp. $26.00 (978-1-4165-5727-2).
There are instances where science fact is far more insidious and scary than science fiction. One such instance is chronicled by Maryn McKenna in her book Superbug: The Fatal Menace of MRSA. This is the description, in McKenna's free-flowing prose, of a modern-day biological success story (or horror story depending on your perspective), that is, the emergence and spread of community-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, otherwise known in scientific literature as CA-MRSA. It is an ancient human foe, colloquially known as the "staph germ," which through genetic mutation, acquisition of new genetic information from other bacteria, and unknown selective forces has risen to epidemic status in the United States. The term epidemic is not applied glibly. Indeed, the spread, particularly of wound infections and pneumonia caused by CA-MRSA strains across the United States, has been concisely documented in the medical and public health...