Facts and ideas from anywhere.

Elsewhere in this issue, Dr. Cristie Columbus talks about the emergence of disease-causing bacteria that are resistant to our most powerful antibiotics, and recently an article by Sheryl Cay Stolberg (1) on this subject appeared in the New York Times Magazine. While popular movies have appeared about the Ebola virus, the big danger lies in the common microorganisms that have developed resistance to commonly used antibiotics. The list of dangerously virulent, drug-resistant microbes has been growing, of course, in recent years: Streptococcus pneumoniae, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, and Neisseria gonorrhoeae, but none of these are as frightening as the VISA strains of staphylococcus. VISA stands for vancomycin intermediate-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. Within the past 18 months, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta has documented the first 4 cases ever. Their emergence is an ominous harbinger of what could be an infectious disease disaster.