HIV researcher turned “Superbug Slayer” visits the BC-CfE

In April, the BC-CfE was honoured to host Dr. Steffanie Strathdee, Associate Dean of Global Health Sciences at the University of California, San Diego, to share her enthralling account of saving her own husband from a superbug-a bacteria pan-resistant to antibiotic treatment.

Using her training as an epidemiologist, Dr. Strathdee identified a potential tool for treatment commonly known as phages. The microscopic limbed creatures live in bacteria-ridden environments (yes, that means sewers), and are technically viruses that can destroy bacteria.

Working with other researchers and health care providers, Dr. Strathdee garnered approval from the US Food and Drug Administration to provide the innovative, experimental treatment to her husband, Dr. Tom Patterson. At the time, he was in a coma and holding on to life “by a thread”, said Strathdee. The phage treatment was seen as a Hail Mary pass (from a blind quarterback, said one doctor); nonetheless, Tom recovered. He may be the first person in the US to be successfully cured of a systemic multi-drug-resistant bacterial infection with cocktails of intravenous bacteriophages.

Drs. Strathdee and Patterson wrote their story in a new book, The Perfect Predator: A Scientist’s Race to Save Her Husband from a Deadly Superbug. The case captured international attention in the scientific community, with mentions in journals like JAMA and The Lancet. Intravenous phage treatment is now being used on a case-by-case basis to help others recover from bacterial infections, when antibiotics offer no recourse.

While Dr. Strathdee is now known as the “Superbug Slayer” due to her superhuman efforts to help her husband, the main focus of her impressive body of research has been HIV. It was at the BC-CfE that she got her start, working with researchers such as Drs. Julio Montaner and Robert Hogg. Her early work identified a major outbreak of HIV among injection drug users in Vancouver, despite the presence of one of North America’s largest needle exchange programs. In 1998, she published a study in JAMA showing only half of medically eligible drug users living with HIV in Vancouver were receiving antiretroviral therapy. Her work helped support advocacy for expanded access to both harm reduction services and HIV treatment.

In addition to her leadership role at UC San Diego, Dr. Strathdee continues to investigate HIV prevention in marginalized populations. For instance, alongside her husband, she leads several studies on HIV risk behaviours among drug users and sex workers in Tijuana, Mexico.

We are grateful to Dr. Strathdee for taking the time to recount her fascinating story to staff at the BC-CfE.  

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