There’s nothing I love more than a justifiable cause for worry. Since I’m a fretter anyway, it’s nice to have a good cause. This month’s winner is MRSA: methicillin-resistant staphlyococcus aureus, aka the SUPERGERM. Why? Because it’s unstoppable, because it’s got a 20-30% fatality rate, and because it’s spreading faster than a California wildfire on a windy day. And I’m not alone – the folks at Cosmic Variance have an awesome post about this monster.

Now I’ve been kicking this worry around in the back of my mind for a while, but until recently the majority of cases were noscomial, or hospital-borne. This means stats are hard to come by, because for obvious reasons hospitals don’t like publicizing infections you get in the hospital.

But even more scary is that increasing numbers of cases are found outside the hospital, which means this bug has found its way into general circulation. It starts with just a little scratch, and before you know it, you’ve got a festering skin infection that refuses to quit. Just google “mrsa” and look at the many images of infections…but wait until after dinner.