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Superbug: The Fatal Menace of MRSA

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Based on my background in biological science, I was very, very excited to get this book, and I was not disappointed.

Maryn McKenna's new book SUPERBUG, deals with the development of MRSA (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus), which is also known as a superbug, it is multiple-drug resistant and impressively deadly. It takes massive amounts of drugs with often serious side-effects to even have a chance of beating it.

Historically, MRSA was a disease of hospitals, and only in people that were already suffering from a weakened immune system - but that is no longer the case. A new strain has come up that affects people who have not had any contact with hospitals. It is known as community-acquired MRSA, and is surprisingly lethal.

McKenna's style is aptly suited to this type of book, as there is a lot of medical jargon that requires a deft hand to explain to people with little to no knowledge in that particular area. This is accomplished through what I can only describe as a massive amount of interviews and research with individuals whose lives have been affected by MRSA.

This book raises a lot of issues regarding the sanitary procedures performed at hospitals, the over-prescription of antibiotics in both people and animals, and the sheer speed in which MRSA can adapt.

Reading this book may seem like some sort of scare tactic, and it is. But it is the sort of thing people NEED to hear. McKenna uses people whose lives have been affected by MRSA to tell the story, and only breaks away from the narrative for context.

Simply put, it is a superbly written science book that reads like a novel.

There are parts of this book which may be difficult to read if you are squeamish, specifically where she describes the various symptoms that people infected with MRSA had to deal with. And, not all the people you meet throughout the book survive, as MRSA is an indiscriminate killer.

SUPERBUG is a very impressive book that has some very important lessons to teach us about microbial evolution, and the huge effect it can have on the human population.

I discovered Ms. McKenna's book via an NPR radio interview. I'm a registered nurse and had been helping an old friend for the last nine months fight CA-MRSA. He has been reinfected over six times in those nine months. When I began reading Superbug, I could barely finish one chapter at a sitting. The information contained in this book is so powerful and well researched, I had to let it all soak in before moving on to the next chapter. Ms. McKenna not only gives us the facts about MRSA, she captures us with her heart wrenching stories of the pain this "superbug" has caused in so many lives. I highly recommend reading this book and taking the precautions necessary to decrease the spread of this dreaded bacteria.

Superbug, along with Beating Back the Devil, cements Maryn McKenna's status as one of the most readable and enjoyable writers of our time covering infectious disease topics. This book details the public health threat of MRSA through the use of frightening individual experiences, behind-the-scenes research narratives, and well-written explanations of the ever-changing epidemiology of MRSA, all in eloquent yet readable detail.

I believe there is something new in this book for anyone, whether it is read by a physician, investigator, nurse, student, or even the armchair philosopher. I'd absolutely recommend the book to anyone working in a clinical science or practice that deals with MRSA on a daily basis, or to any students considering careers in the health sciences! After working for 2.5 years side-by-side with Staph researchers in an MRSA lab, I must say I was quite impressed with how completely McKenna recounts the unfolding of the MRSA epidemic and updates the reader with current topics in MRSA research and epidemiology. It really put my work and education into context in a few hundred pages, and I have no doubt others will gain from reading this book!

Often, the books that frighten me the most aren't horror novels. Instead, I'm more likely to be disturbed after reading texts detailing real-life threats, especially dangers that are under reported and not taken seriously.

So it's probably no surprise that Superbug: The Fatal Menace of MRSA scared the hell out of me. As the text's title indicates, Superbug is all about MRSA, a bacterium responsible for a range of difficult-to-treat infections. MRSA stands for Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus but is commonly labeled as staph, or, more appropriately, drug-resistant staph. It is especially dangerous because is has developed resistance to many antibiotic drugs that are normally used to counter bacterial infections. In this sense, MRSA has become more drug-resistant in part because of our societal overuse of antibiotics.

There are a variety of strains and manifestations of MRSA, from minor skin infections to severe necrotizing or flesh bacteria syndrome. The fear with MRSA, as author Maryn McKenna conveys, is that we may be approaching a MRSA strain, or superbug, that's untreatable.

The book doesn't offer much consolation or conclude with a silver bullet that's on its way to defeat MRSA, although the author does touch on some of the current research exploring MRSA vaccines and mentions some of the tactics used in preventive MRSA screening.

As a reading experience, Superbug was accessible and well-paced. The author smartly alternated between true stories of people with MRSA to more technical passages that delved into the history and science behind the bug. There were some spots that were a little too esoteric for me, but, overall, Maryn McKenna is a fluid and accomplished writer and I learned a lot.

In a media-saturated age that can't wait to report about the next pandemic, sometimes it's hard to know which looming diseases to take seriously. When I mentioned I was reading Superbug to a friend, he questioned the threat of MRSA and contended that, if it was so serious, I should probably know some people who had MRSA. I considered the claim but disputed the logic. I personally don't know anyone with HIV or Juvenile Diabetes, but that doesn't mean those conditions aren't serious. Ultimately, I think the facts and cases Maryn McKenna presents in Superbug speak for themselves, and we need to take MRSA seriously.

"The medical system completely destroyed my trust. It's greedy. It does nothing to keep people safe. It has no integrity."
These are the words of Diane Lore,medical editor of her local newspaper, whose life was upheaved by MRSA days after the birth of her child. After months of suffering and family turmoil and an alphabet soup of antibiotics, Lori was finally declared cured. Along the way her insurance company refused to pay for linezolid, a medicine that would cost 6 thousand dollars just for a weekend's dosage. Fortunately the insurance company eventually relented, a move that may have saved her life.

Diane Lore's experience and those of many other MRSA victims are told in gripping detail by Maryn McKenna. Her book is well paced and holds the reader's attention throughout until we learn of the emergence and discovery of the MRSA superbug.
MRSA is a frightening foe with its uncanny ability to evolve and share defensive measures with other bacteria. The author proposes prevention and the need to spend more money to develop a MRSA vaccine.

For intangible reasons I have developed and unquenchable interest in a a curiosity about MRSA. In the past year I've read at least five books about MRSA, infectious diseases and the abilities of bacteria to adapt to any and all weapons man can develop. In Superbug one learns about the evolution of hospital MRSA, community MRSA and now the horrow of a hybrid of both. McKenna's very readable book, fair, balanced, and insightful, is one of the best of the bunch and highly recommended.

If you've read the Andromeda Strain or watched "Outbreak" you know how scary a rampant microbe can be to the human body. This book will tell tales of a type of microbe that is all around us and will mutate at it's convenience. Not scared yet? This isn't some exposé on some ancient plague. This is happening today. People are dying today from this "Superbug." Swineflu? Avianflu? Flu in general? Denghe fever? They don't scare me. The subject of this book does.

This book will take you on a journey of how a Staph infection can mutate through many means, most of them human created, to create a "Superbug" of unknown potential. Maryn will take you step by step on how we created it and how the Doctors are trying to combat it. [Don't talk about it, because "they" don't- my commentary].

And FINISH those antibiotics the doctor gave you even if you feel better!!!!!

The superbug's advance exposes the private healthcare system's sickness. With the exception of course of a quite healthy bottom line. There now exists HUGE gulfs between medical researchers and health care workers, between health care and the public health, between public health and the public it is entended to served. It illustrates the failures of private science, the market place, & the failure of support for private research and innovation. It touches the way we fund our schools and schedule our work lives, and it demonstrates the way we raise food is not sustainable or safe.
That staph infections are occurring is not remarkable, as it is the strain that is most common in humans and is probably one of mankinds oldest evolutionary companions. Staph is a fearsome aggressor when the body's protective mechanisms are disrupted, both in the first lines of defense, our skin and the complex chemical weapons of our immune system. It is nortorious for invading not only large surgical wounds, but small incisions made to accomodate IV lines and dialysis catheters; it enters the body through the smallest gap, and it forms sticky, infectious films on the tubes passing through those gaps. It is a grave danger to anyone whose immune defenses have been reduced by age, illness, or treatment for disease: new born infants, chemotherapy recipients, ect.
It is by far the most common cause of infections in hospital patients, causing almost a half a million serious cases. It lingered on floors, bed rails, and tables; on blood pressure cuffs and thermometers, and even soft surfaces such as bed linens, doctor's white coats, and nurse's protective gowns. Outside the U.S. MRSA was being controlled to about 1% vs U.S. over 50% rates in their hospitals, public vs private. A bottom line of public health vs a bottom line of private wealth.
Prisons were the perfect incubators.
In addition to its virulence, staph possesses anothe potent weapon, it has been developing successful defenses against antibodies for as long as antibiotics have been around.

It's virulent, It's VERY adaptive...Its a perfect pathogen.

Learn about mutations vs conjugation, transduction, and transformation. Learn how a once almost exclusive hospital bug has morphed into "Community MRSAs" that were not enfeebled hospital purebreds, but were new hybrids being created from scrath in the world outside the hospital. Learn how the "mec cassette" was inserting itself over & over into many different drug-sensitive staph strains, creating a diverse pool of Community MRSA whose relationship to each other looked less like a family tree and more like A SWARM! It was moving into animals: dogs, cats, pigs, horeses, etc. It was also moving into the food chain.

By this time... your just barely getting started!
Don't pass this one up!

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED !!!!!!!

In moments of quiet reverie I often find myself wishing I could dance like Astaire, or maybe sing like Sinatra, or perhaps compose like Gershwin. But in truth, I'd happily settle for being able to write about science and medicine as well as does Maryn McKenna.


While chock full of scientific information, Superbug reads more like a fast-paced medical thriller than a science book. Maryn writes so vividly, that when she takes you into the ICU (which is often), you can all but smell the antiseptic.


Superbug manages to deliver an enormous amount of scientific data almost painlessly by incorporating it into the stories of people (and their families) that MRSA has devastated, or those are trying to understand and stop its spread.


I can think of a great many superlatives to describe this book; engaging, harrowing, fascinating, powerful . . . even terrifying at times.


But the descriptive term that keeps coming back to me is:


Important.


There is probably no graver health threat facing the world today than the rise of antibiotic resistant pathogens. And it isn't just MRSA. There's VRSA, VRE, VISA, Acinetobacter and others.



The way we use (and misuse) antibiotics in humans, and on the farm, plays a huge role in our ability to deal with infections today and in the future. As Maryn points out, we need to make changes in hospital procedures, community health care, farming practices, prisons, and antibiotic awareness if we are to combat these emerging superbugs.

Superbug, quite frankly, should be required reading for every doctor, nurse, and health care professional, if for no other reason than to alert them to the changes they must make in order to help curb the spread of these deadly pathogens.


But it should also be on the reading list of parents, students, and teachers who need to be able to recognize the early warning signs of infection.



And just as importantly, read by those who make policy at the local, state, and Federal level. We either make institutional changes or risk serious peril from these resistant bacteria.



This is a book I will keep, and I am certain, will re-read and refer to often. Even if you don't normally read `science books', you should take the time to read this one.


Superbug is not only a fascinating book, it's an important one.

Superbug is one of those books I picked up on a lark and thought I might not finish: Hospitals make me squeamish, and since I don't plan on ending up in one (or getting a MRSA infection) anytime soon, I assumed I'd put it down for my usual pleasure-reading fare: History or noir detective novels. I quickly became fascinated -- and horrified at how much about what I put into my body I know nothing about. I've always known the dangers of over-prescribing antibiotics in people, but I had no idea the extent to which virtually everything grown on farms has been subjected to massive overuse of antibiotics as well -- and that's one of the main forces driving worldwide drug resistance. This is one of those books that I predict we'll be pointing to in years to come when we say to ourselves, "If only we'd known the consequences of this at the time." Because of Maryn McKenna, we do know...or at least those of us lucky and smart enough to read her book do.

Superbug: The Fatal Menace of MRSA discusses the history and threat of drug-resistant staph, an epidemic that threatens the world. It's not just an occasional occurrence - it's a persistent, planet-wide threat that has grown over fifty years and has spread into the food chain. It kills at least 19,000 Americans yearly - and this examination represents some 200 interviews and research conducted since 2006 on the topic. No health library should be without it!