Author: Allie Wilkinson / Source: Science News
The Perfect Predator
Steffanie Strathdee and Thomas Patterson
Hachette Books, $28
Epidemiologist Steffanie Strathdee and her husband, Thomas Patterson, went to Egypt in 2015 expecting to come home with some photos and souvenirs.
Instead, Patterson was hit with his own version of the 10 plagues.At first, doctors in Egypt thought Patterson had pancreatitis. But his health worsened after treatment, and he started hallucinating. Once flown to Germany, he was diagnosed with a multidrug-resistant bacterial infection in his pancreas. He was then airlifted to a hospital at Strathdee’s home institution, the University of California, San Diego. There, Patterson suffered several episodes of septic shock and spent months in a coma.
The Perfect Predator chronicles the couple’s encounter with a bacterium that was resistant to every available antibiotic, and the rush to find an alternative treatment to save Patterson’s life.
During the ordeal, Strathdee used her scientific training to research solutions and stumbled upon phage therapy. The idea is that even the…
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