“Superbug” Author to Speak Next Week at Texas A&M

COLLEGE STATION, Nov. 24, 2010 - Journalist Maryn McKenna, who wrote "Superbug: The Fatal Menace of MRSA" and "Beating Back the Devil," will speak on public health Monday and Tuesday (Nov. 29-30) at Texas A&M University.

She will present "Superbug: The Story and the Book" - an account of the global epidemic of  methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or drug-resistant staph - at 4 p.m. Monday in Room 101 of the Veterinary Teaching Hospital. The book presentation is hosted by the Texas A&M master's degree program in science and technology journalism. For more information, contact Barbara Gastel at (979) 845-6887 or bgastel@cvm.tamu.edu.

On Tuesday, McKenna will present "Dateline Lookingglass: Public health, media competence and the H1N1 flu" from 4 to 5 p.m. in the Hawking Auditorium at the Mitchell Physics Building, with a reception to follow. It is hosted by the Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences, with support from the Western Regional Center of Excellence for Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Diseases Research.

McKenna is an award-winning journalist and author who writes about public health, medicine and food policy for national magazines and medical journals, and says she finds emerging diseases "strangely exciting."

Contact: Angela Clendenin at  AClendenin@cvm.tamu.edu or Kelli Levey, News & Information Services, at (979) 845-4645 or klevey@tamu.edu.

*Originally posted on Texas A&M News and Information Services