Articles

Has COVID-19 made the superbug crisis worse? – National | Globalnews.ca
Antimicrobial resistance, AMR, is projected to claim 10 million lives every year by 2050; superbugs with no treatment options. Now experts worry the pandemic has made AMR worse.

Morgan Griffith on Twitter: “Phage therapy has the potential to help combat antimicrobial resistance but much research still needs to be done. Check out my questioning here on the future of Phage ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/4V40MnhQbb / Twitter”
Phage therapy has the potential to help combat antimicrobial resistance but much research still needs to be done. Check out my questioning here on the future of Phage ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/4V40MnhQbb

From a Harrowing Experience, Comes a Professional Calling
Steffanie Strathdee, PhD, had to navigate care for her husband who became gravely ill with a multidrug resistant bacterial infection while they were on vacation overseas. He recovered thanks to the use of phage therapy. From that experience, she has dedicated her life to getting phage therapy to the masses.

Phage Therapy To Defeat Superbugs Is Taking Off
Phage therapy – bacteria-killing viruses – might be the most important alternative and adjunct to antibiotics.

Phage Against the Routine: Resistant Acinetobacter
Defined as an “urgent” AMR threat by the US CDC, resistant Acinetobacter baumanii cause deadly infections and are difficult to remove from the environment. Acinetobacter is resistant to many antibiotics and is a frequent cause of hospital acquired infections. In the 2022 Lancet publication on drug-resistant infections (GRAM report), it was identified as the leading pathogen causing mortality in Southeast Asia.

In the War on Bacteria, It’s Time to Call in the Phages
Researchers say viruses can kill antibiotic-resistant microbes and help treat infections. Regulators have to figure out how to get them on the market.

“Viruses that treat”
There are viruses that save lives. They are the natural predators of bacteria and allow to treat infections that antibiotics cannot fight. Faced with the growing threat of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, this therapy, discovered more than a century ago, is being recovered in an innovative and personalized way.

Meet the scientist who used a bacteria-fighting virus to save her husband when nothing else worked
Her story is one that might save countless lives from the increasing threat of antibiotic-resistant superbugs.

No antibiotics worked, so this woman turned to a natural enemy of bacteria to save her husband’s life | CNN
With her husband near death from an antibiotic-resistant superbug, a scientist found a cure no one had used in the US – intravenous injections of viruses called phages – and convinced the medical system to save his life.

Salt In My Soul: Poignant Film Calls Attention To The Need For Phages For Antibiotic Resistance
Phage therapy could save many lives. Hopefully, sharing Mallory Smith’s story will boost research into cystic fibrosis, growing antibiotic resistance, and the promise of phages.

Rediscovering phages: ‘We finally have the tools to harness them’
Antibiotic-resistant infections, which have been on the rise for years, were the cause of more than 1.2 million deaths worldwide in 2019, according to estimates published this year in The Lancet.In the United States alone, the CDC reported that more than 2.8 million infections are caused by antibiotic-resistant pathogens annually, resulting in at least 35,000 deaths.

100-Year-Old Treatment Could Help Save Us from Superbugs

How A 100-Year-Old Treatment Could Help Save Us From Superbugs : Short Wave
In 2015, Steffanie Strathdee’s husband nearly died from a superbug, an antibiotic resistant bacteria he contracted in Egypt. Desperate to save him, she reached out to the scientific community for help. What she got back? A 100-year-old treatment that’s considered experimental in the U.S.

NIH Awards Grants for Phage Therapy Research

NIH awards $2.5M for phage therapy research
The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases awarded $2.5 million in grants to 12 institutions to study using bacteriophage therapy to combat antimicrobial-resistant bacteria.Bacteriophages, or phages, are viruses that target and consume bacteria.

Unlocking the Potential of Phage Therapy

Scientists, biotechs look to unlock the potential of phage therapy
Bacteriophages are everywhere. Considered the most abundant organisms on the face of the earth, these microscopic viruses that selectively target and kill bacteria can be found wherever bacteria exist-in soil, inside plants and animals, and in oceans, streams, and sewage water.

Scientist Defeats Bacteria to Save Husband’s Life

Meet the scientist who defeated ‘the world’s worst bacteria’ to save her husband’s life
As she told us on the Science Focus Podcast, Professor Steffanie Strathdee tackled a superbug as it threatened to kill her partner.

Film Highlights the Need for Phages for Antibiotic Resistance

Salt In My Soul: Poignant Film Calls Attention To The Need For Phages For Antibiotic Resistance
Phage therapy could save many lives. Hopefully, sharing Mallory Smith’s story will boost research into cystic fibrosis, growing antibiotic resistance, and the promise of phages.

Can Phage Help Where Antibiotics have Failed?

Can Phages Help Where Antibiotics Have Failed?
Phages, long relegated to the fringes of infectious disease treatment, may overcome antibiotic resistance and help patients with no other options.

Viruses can save lives

Science’s cutting-edge: seven ideas you should know about in 2021
From life-saving viruses to spaceship swarms to virtual reality therapy, here’s our pick of the scientific research to look out for in the year ahead.

Why is Germany’s Coronavirus Death Rate so Low?

Why is Germany’s Coronavirus Death Rate So Low?
Germany’s death rate is surprisingly low compared to other major European nations, such as Italy and Spain.

Will America Let COVID-19 Become the Next HIV

Will America Let COVID-19 Become The Next HIV?
Epidemiologists are watching politicians repeat the mistakes of the past.

Third Wave of COVID-19 is Here

https://www.fastcompany.com/90564960/coronavirus-third-wave

Antimicrobial restistance could get worse during coronavirus pandemic

Antimicrobial resistance could get worse during the coronavirus pandemic
More COVID-19 patients are getting antibiotics when they don’t need them, and this could make the situation worse.

The Virtuous Side of Viruses

The Virtuous Side of Viruses
As drug-resistant superbugs spread, researchers are turning to microbes that kill bacteria

Clinical News Research Two Part Series: Phage Therapy: From Compassionate Use To Clinical Trials

Phage Therapy Making A Big Comeback
Discover the Latest News in Clinical Research, Clinical Trials, Medical Informatics, & More. Clinical Research News Online Provides Daily Insights, News, & Analysis for the Clinical Research Industry.

Phage Therapy: From Compassionate Use To Clinical Trials
Discover the Latest News in Clinical Research, Clinical Trials, Medical Informatics, & More. Clinical Research News Online Provides Daily Insights, News, & Analysis for the Clinical Research Industry.

Phage therapy case listed as one of BBC’s Medical Breakthroughs of 2019

‘Man on the Moon’ moment – the year’s big breakthroughs
The year of treating the untreatable: 2019 breakthroughs that could transform medicine.

Who’s up for a little gut gardening?
A new study from SDSU researchers suggests certain foods can be used to control the effects of biophage viruses

A fitting memorial: Superbug treatment named for the patient who inspired its discovery
The fact that scientists are looking for viruses to try as phage therapies is a sign of how much has changed since – and because of – Mallory Smith’s death.

Phage Crusade
A Canadian scientist once harnessed the power of viruses against bacterial infections. In dire times, a new generation of scientists is fighting to do the same.

As antibiotic resistance threatens millions of lives, is phage therapy the best alternative?
Resistance to antibiotics is leading to millions of deaths each year. Can phages – bacteria-eating viruses – contain the problem before it’s too late?

How a Winnipeg entrepreneur is using Mother Nature’s deadly weapon to fight antibiotic-resistant superbugs
One to watch: Steven Theriault’s research on bacteriophages has put him at the cutting edge of a potential bio-medical revolution

Announcing the Goodreads Choice Winner in Best Science & Technology!
Congratulations to our winners in 20 categories! The Goodreads Choice Awards are the only major book awards decided by readers.

“Perfect Predator: A Scientist’s Race to Save Her Husband from a Deadly Superbug” by Steffanie Strathdee and Thomas Patterson, is this year’s selection for the KUMC One Book Program.

A long forgotten Canadian discovery used to treat superbugs
A cystic fibrosis patient infected with a dangerous superbug has become one of the first Canadians to try phage therapy — inhaling viruses found in sewage to kill the bacteria in her lungs. The experimental treatment, discovered in Canada over a century ago, may become a new weapon in the war against drug resistant bacteria.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-11-18/viral-smart-bombs-are-becoming-weapons-against-superbugs

When my husband almost died from antibiotic resistance, I saved his life
When I realised that he was going to die, I was shocked and terrified. So I decided to do my own research.

How Do We Stop The Superbugs? – Folks
After saving her husband’s life from an antibiotic-resistant infection, Steffanie Strathdee is trying to bring phage therapy to the rest of the world.

‘My husband squeezed my hand to say he wanted to live, then I found a way to save him’
Tom Patterson was dying from a drug-resistant superbug, until his wife mobilised experts in phages.

Opinion | Phage therapy could arm the world against superbugs
A phage is a kind of virus that can enter a bacterium, multiply, and thus kill its host from within

Phage Therapy Could Beat Drug-Resistant Illnesses
Treatment first used in the early 20th century is showing promise against deadly infections

http://www.medicalbrief.co.za/archives/ancient-therapy-answer-multi-drug-resistance/

Can we kill superbugs before they kill us?
More than 10 million people a year could die from antibiotic-resistant bacteria, warns a United Nations report.

THE OCTAVIAN REPORT: GOING VIRAL
https://octavianreport.com/article/how-phages-can-save-world-superbugs/

These superbug-fighting viruses are making a comeback
Antibiotic-resistant bacteria – superbugs – are medical monsters of our own design. Honed by years of antibiotic misuse and overuse, superbugs demand new weapons to treat them. Bacteria-hunting viruses called phages have emerged as potentially potent tools in this fight, successfully sicced on vicious infections in a psychologist who caught a superbug on vacation and a London cystic fibrosis patient.

Steffanie Strathdee: ‘Phages have evolved to become perfect predators of bacteria’
In 2015, the scientist’s husband was almost killed by an antibiotic-resistant superbug

Cystic Fibrosis Patients Turn to Experimental Phage Therapy (Published 2019)
Phages have not been approved by the Food and Drug Administration, but there is growing interest in the treatment for cystic fibrosis.

Genetically Modified Viruses Help Save A Patient With A ‘Superbug’ Infection
Treatment with genetically altered bacteriophages – viruses that attack bacteria – may have halted a patient’s near-fatal infection, hinting at new ways to fight antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

Scientist threw ‘Hail Mary pass’ to defeat Husband’s superbug
While vacationing in Egypt during the winter of 2015, an almost fatal event occurred to local resident and University of California San Diego professor Thomas Patterson. “Tom’s symptoms resembled food poisoning at first, but he just kept getting sicker,” said his wife, Steffanie Strathdee, an associate dean of global health and infectious disease epidemiologist at UC San Diego.

The Perfect Predator
Epidemiologist Steffanie Strathdee and evolutionary sociobiologist Thomas Patterson talked about their book, [The Perfect Predator: A Scientist’s Race to Save Her Husband from a Deadly Superbug: A Memoir], in which they described Dr. Strathdee’s search for a cure for an antibiotic resistant superbug that almost killed Dr. Patterson.

A patient’s legacy: Researchers work to make phage therapy less of a long shot
Inspired by the story of Mallory Smith, a biology grad student and a tech consultant launched a website to make experimental phage therapy more practical.

https://www.thestar.com/news/world/2019/03/23/my-husband-was-dying-with-a-superbug-so-i-hunted-down-an-experimental-treatment-to-save-him.html

How this couple used a bacteria-fighting virus to thwart a deadly superbug | CBC Radio
Steffanie Strathdee and her husband Tom Patterson have written a book to spread awareness of the surprising, experimental treatment that saved Patterson’s life: a bacteria-fighting virus known as a phage.

Why Canada should revive a forgotten cure to combat the global superbug crisis
Iraqibacter is the deadliest superbug, a bacterial kleptomaniac that collects antibiotic-resistance genes and has sticky “fingers” that cling to lab coats, hospital linens and even body lice

Superbug Slayer Dr. Steffanie Strathdee: ‘How I Saved My Husband’s Life – with Sewage’
A desperate wife saved her dying husband from a superbug – and jumpstarted global research on a powerful new weapon in the battle against antibiotic-resistant bacteria

This Viral Therapy Could Help Us Survive the Superbug Era
When one man fell into a coma, his wife sought out a Soviet-era medical technique called phage therapy that ended up saving his life.

UCSD researchers get OK from FDA for first trial of IV phage therapy
The FDA has given clearance for the first clinical trial in the United States to test an IV-administered bacteriophage-based therapy to kill drug-resistant bacteria.The agency accepted an investigational new drug application for the planned trial from researchers at the University of California, San Diego, according to a news release.

From Superbug To Super Deal: How One Couple Cured the Incurable And Lived to Write the Book
Over a year ago, we received a dream email from Steffanie Strathdee and Tom Patterson. They wrote to tell us about how our book, The Essential Guide to Getting Your Book Published, helped them do…

Her Husband Was Dying From A Superbug. She Turned To Sewer Viruses Collected By The Navy.
Scientists have long dismissed “phage therapy” as a fringe idea pushed by eccentrics who enjoy fishing in sewage. But now the Navy is betting on it.

Sewage Saved This Man’s Life. Someday It Could Save Yours.
Bacteriophages — viruses found in soil, water and human waste — may be the cure in a post-antibiotic world.

This man should have died, but unusual infusions saved his life
bacteriophages, which are bacteria-killing viruses, succeeded where antibiotics failed.

This Last-Resort Medical Treatment Offers Hope in the Fight Against Superbugs
Physicians are turning to phage therapy as a treatment, which is seen as one of the more promising frontiers in the war on superbugs.

He was dying. Antibiotics weren’t working. Then doctors tried a forgotten treatment.
Phages are making a comeback.

How the Navy brought a once-derided scientist out of retirement – and into the virus-selling business
As the Navy tapped into its virus library to treat a man on the brink of death with phage therapy, little did it know it was about to jump-start a virus-selling family business – with a former race-car driver as CEO.