SuperPlague

New buff and bad bugs are traveling around the world so fast they qualify for frequent flyer upgrades. They are causing havoc wherever they appear. Not that deadly germs are anything new: The Israelites were infected with a virus, and it almost wiped them out in the wilderness.

When Bob Stevens went to work at the headquarters of tabloid publisher American Media Inc. in Florida in late September 2001, he could not have known that his building would soon become a hot zone for an outbreak of anthrax, or that he would be fatally exposed to the disease. His death was the second chapter (September 11 being the first) in the apocalyptic annuals of the new terrorism of the third millennium.
Other hot zones soon emerged in media centers in New York City, at the nation's capital and in post offices in New Jersey and Washington, D.C. Panicked postal employees as well as congressional appointees began proactively quaffing Cipro cocktails to fortify their systems should they be exposed to the disease.

Yet the world was a dangerous place before September 11. Our global community, linked by air traffic, offers germs a full set of frequent flier upgrades, enabling them to migrate around the globe with unprecedented speed. How do they do it? They hitch rides on...