'This was my last resort,' Ottawa-area woman says of experimental phage therapy to treat infection

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In February, Dr. Marisa Azad gave her patient, Thea Turcotte, experimental phage treatment for a chronic artificial joint infection that was slowly poisoning her. Her condition is improving.

Thea Turcotte believes her life was likely saved by an experimental treatment developed in Winnipeg for a chronic artificial joint infection.In February, Dr. Marisa Azad, right, gave her patient, Thea Turcotte, experimental phage treatment for a chronic artificial joint infection. Her condition is improving. Thea Turcotte believes her life was likely saved by an experimental treatment developed in Winnipeg for a chronic artificial joint infection.

Phages were discovered more than a century ago by French Canadian scientist Félix d'Hérelle, but penicillin and antibiotics sent phage therapy to the fringes. Her case was complicated because the infection had become resistant to most antibiotics, she developed a "severe toxicity" to the only antibiotic that still worked and has a severe allergy to two of the major drug classes, said her infectious disease physician, Dr. Marisa Azad, who does research at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute.

bacteria from Turcotte's infection to Steven Theriault, CEO and chief science officer at Cytophage Technologies Ltd. in Winnipeg."What we do is ensure that our bacteriophage is killing the patient's bacteria at a very high level, so 100 per cent or 98 per cent, making sure that we get rid of that bacterial infection … creating a solution for patients that don't have any solutions because of antimicrobial resistance and antibiotic resistance," he said.

 

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