Steffanie Strathdee

Tore through this book in two days. What a thriller! A medical miracle story that apparently hit the media five years ago (writing now in 2022) but I only heard about recently.

The author's husband suffered a medical crisis while they were on vacation in Egypt, which escalated rapidly with infection by a "superbug"-- an antibiotic resistant bacteria (nicknamed Iraqibacter because it was known from military returning from the Middle East). Evacuated to Franfurt and then back home to San Diego where he and his wife were professors at UC San Diego medical school. All treatments failed and he was near death as she and their colleagues sought worldwide for a hundred-year-old treatment that had been abandoned in favor of the miracle cure of antibiotics, which were now no longer effective.

Trigger warning for anyone who has gone through a family medical crisis; this was a really rough ride.… (meer)

As a scientist, this was an absolutely fascinating read. As a human being, if I hadn't known the ending, I would have found it extremely stressful, but I am so glad I read it! Steffanie Strathdee, an infectious disease epidemiologist, whose major work has been on AIDS, partners with her husband Thomas Patterson, also a researcher, who works on life experiences and the resulting behaviors that can put people at greater risk of catching AIDS. A second marriage for both of them, they take some very "out there" trips. This one was to Egypt where they hired a guide to take them to the pyramids and other fascinating places. In the middle of the trip, Tom becomes seriously ill with antibiotic-resistant bacteria, leading ultimately to a medivac back home and several months of intensive care with Tom in a coma, almost losing his life several times. There are some high energy, screamingly tense times in this true story and we get to see Steffanie as the scientist and the wife. Incredibly well-written and fascinating story of how she and the doctors treating her husband come up with an old treatment that had never been used in this country due to the prevalence of antibiotics. Highly recommended for both scientists and lay people as an extremely exciting read. The best news is that their success is likely to lead to novel treatments for people suffering and dying from antibiotic-resistant infections.… (meer)

Gentlemen, it is the microbes who will have the last word.
- attributed to Louis Pasteur

Perfect Predator is a page-turning, true-life medical thriller. At times I felt like I was reading a Michael Crichton novel. The science is fascinating and scary. Superbugs - bacteria resistant to all existing antibiotics - are becoming more prevalent due to overuse both in medical treatment and as growth enhancers in livestock. Dr. Thomas Patterson contracted what was thought to be the worst superbug, Acinetobacter baumanni. One day, after Tom had been at death's door for two and a half months, his wife, Dr. Steffanie Strathdee, an infectious disease epidemiologist, decided it was time to take matters into her own hands and began searching on the internet for a treatment. What she found turned out to be the "Perfect Predator". It involved therapy using bacteriophages - viruses that attack bacteria - to kill the bacteria. Phage therapy had been researched over 100 years ago, but the research was "relegated to the back burner" after penicillin was discovered and put on the market. Although it was still being researched for various applications, she could find no evidence that it had been used to treat humans infected with Tom's superbug. She goes on to describe how she consulted and worked with teams of people from various organizations who eventually succeeded in saving Tom's life.

Just as compelling as the science in this story is the emotional journey that Steff and Tom went through during the several months Tom was in the hospital. There is a lot of detail about how the family coped during the difficult months when Tom was very sick. The section describing his months of recovery is short in comparison, and I would have enjoyed learning more about that. One thing that struck me was how once the ordeal was over the couple was able to compare notes about the experience.

"Every medical case is lived twice: once in the wards and once in the memory," wrote Siddhartha Mkherjee, physician and author, paraphrasing the writer Viet Thanh Nguyen. For a couple or a family, every medical case is lived twice more: alone and together. Each of us had our own version of the illness experience as it affected us individually. Our shared version as a family was a patchwork of pieces that came together more slowly with time and conversations. It was another kind of healing."

I'm sure anyone who has been through a medical catastrophe with a loved one can relate.

Because of the success of Tom's case, five other patients were successfully treated with phage therapy by the time the book was published. Also, thanks to generous funding, Tom and Steff have launched a phage center research center. While there is now a glimmer of hope, much research needs to be done before an there is an answer to the dangers of antibiotic resistance. It starts with ending the indiscriminate use of antibiotics.… (meer)