The Perfect Predator: A Scientist's Race to Save Her Husband from a Deadly Superbug

by Steffanie Strathdee, Thomas Patterson, Teresa Barker (With)

Overview

An electrifying memoir of one woman's extraordinary effort to save her husband's life-and the discovery of a forgotten cure that has the potential to save millions more.


"A memoir that reads like a thriller." -New York Times Book Review


"A fascinating and terrifying peek into the devastating outcomes of antibiotic misuse-and what happens when standard health care falls short." -Scientific American

Epidemiologist Steffanie Strathdee and her husband, psychologist Tom Patterson, were vacationing in Egypt when Tom came down with a stomach bug. What at first seemed like a case of food poisoning quickly turned critical, and by the time Tom had been transferred via emergency medevac to the world-class medical center at UC San Diego, where both he and Steffanie worked, blood work revealed why modern medicine was failing: Tom was fighting one of the most dangerous, antibiotic-resistant bacteria in the world.

Frantic, Steffanie combed through research old and new and came across phage therapy: the idea that the right virus, aka "the perfect predator," can kill even the most lethal bacteria. Phage treatment had fallen out of favor almost 100 years ago, after antibiotic use went mainstream. Now, with time running out, Steffanie appealed to phage researchers all over the world for help. She found allies at the FDA, researchers from Texas A&M, and a clandestine Navy biomedical center — and together they resurrected a forgotten cure.

A nail-biting medical mystery, The Perfect Predator is a story of love and survival against all odds, and the (re)discovery of a powerful new weapon in the global superbug crisis.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780316418119
Publisher:	Hachette Books
Publication date:	11/10/2020
Pages:	352
Sales rank:	83,279
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.20(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Steffanie Strathdee is an infectious disease epidemiologist, and Associate Dean of Global Health Sciences and Professor and Harold Simon Chair at the University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine. She also directs the new UC San Diego center for Innovative Phage Application and Therapeutics and is an Adjunct Professor at Johns Hopkins and Simon Fraser Universities. She has been named one of TIME's 50 Most Influential People in Health Care.




Thomas Patterson is an evolutionary sociobiologist and an experimental psychologist. A Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry at UC San Diego, he has renowned expertise on behavioral interventions among HIV-positive persons and those at high risk of acquiring HIV and sexually transmitted infections.

Table of Contents

Part I A Deadly Hitchhiker

Blindsided 3

1 A Menacing Air 7

2 The Last Supper 16

3 Disease Detectives 22

4 First Responders 28

5 Lost in Translation 33

6 The Colonel from Al-Shabaab 42

Tom: Interlude I 51

7 A Deadly Hitchhiker 52

8 "The Worst Bacteria on the Planet" 65

Tom: Interlude II 77

Part II Can't Eskape

9 Homecoming 81

10 Superbugged 91

11 Public Enemy Number One: Under the Radar 98

Tom: Interlude III 106

12 The Alternate Reality Club 108

13 Tipping Point: Fully Colonized 118

Tom: Interlude IV 132

Part III The Perfect Predator

14 The Spider to Catch the Fly 135

Tom: Interlude V 150

15 The Perfect Predator 152

16 Semper Fortis: Always Faithful, Always Strong 165

17 A Hail Mary Pass 177

18 Panning for Gold 184

19 Journeying 194

Tom: Interlude VI 205

Part IV The Darwinian Dance

20 The Blood Orange Tree 211

21 Moment of Truth 227

22 The Bold Guess 234

23 Lysis to Kill 237

Tom: Interlude VII 241

24 Second-Guessing 244

25 No Mud, No Lotus 254

Tom: Interlude VIII 265

28 The Darwinian Dance and the Red Queen's Pursuit 267

27 The Last Dance 274

28 The Buddha's Gift 285

29 Grand Rounds 293

Epilogue 307

To Readers 313

Acknowledgments 315

Perfect Predator Discussion Guide Questions 319

Selected Chapter References 323

About the Authors 331

Index 333

What People are Saying About This

PhD, Director, Center for Microbiome Innovation, University of California San Diego and author of Follow your Gut and Di - Rob Knight

“The Perfect Predator is a compelling and heart-wrenching medical drama that would be completely unbelievable — if it weren’t 100% true! Strathdee and Patterson masterfully weave together the personal, medical, and scientific strands of their battle against one of the world’s worst superbugs, bringing not just Patterson, but a century-old medical technology back from the brink of death. This first-hand account of the front lines of the battle against the scourge of antimicrobial resistance underscores the human cost underlying the bland statistics.”

FRCP, FMedSci, Editor-in-Chief, The Lancet - Richard Horton

"A remarkable story of love, resilience, the science of discovery, and quite possibly the future of medicine."

New York Times bestselling author of Where Good Ideas Come From and The Ghost Map - Steven Johnson

“At once terrifying and inspiring, The Perfect Predator is a brilliant race-against-the-clock medical thriller that is also a celebration of love, commitment, and the power of scientific collaboration.”

Senior Fellow of the Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism at Brandeis University and author of Big Chicken an - Maryn McKenna

“A thriller, a detective story, and at its core a profound romance, The Perfect Predator is [a] breathtaking story…. It’s a warning of the havoc that awaits us as antibiotics lose their power, and a glimpse of the science that could hold that dark future at bay — if we can summon the funding and the political will to create it.”

Editorial Reviews

Amazon, "Best Books of 2019 (Science)"


Goodreads Choice Awards, Semifinalist (Science & Technology)



STAT News, "Best Health and Science Books to Read This Summer"

"A fascinating and terrifying peek into the devastating outcomes of antibiotic misuse — and what happens when standard health care falls short."—Scientific American

"[A] gripping and intriguing medical thriller...This page-turner of a couple's determination to survive also serves as a dire warning regarding the consequences of the overuse of antibiotics."—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"A thriller, a detective story, and at its core a profound romance, The Perfect Predator is [a] breathtaking story.... It's a warning of the havoc that awaits us as antibiotics lose their power, and a glimpse of the science that could hold that dark future at bay - if we can summon the funding and the political will to create it."—Maryn McKenna, Senior Fellow of the Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism at Brandeis University and author of Big Chicken and Superbug

"At once terrifying and inspiring, The Perfect Predator is a brilliant race-against-the-clock medical thriller that is also a celebration of love, commitment, and the power of scientific collaboration."—Steven Johnson, New York Times bestselling author of Where Good Ideas Come From and The Ghost Map

"A remarkable story of love, resilience, the science of discovery, and quite possibly the future of medicine."—Richard Horton, FRCP, FMedSci, Editor-in-Chief, The Lancet

"One of the single most compelling personal stories we've ever heard."—Arielle Eckstut and David Henry Sterry, authors of The Essential Guide to Getting yourBook Published

"A real-life medical thriller...fast paced [and] the writing is always infused with humor, hope, and intelligence, and the couple's remarkable story is grounded in real-life details that bring readers directly into their world. Dark, surreal poetic."—Kirkus Reviews

"The Perfect Predator is a compelling and heart-wrenching medical drama that would be completely unbelievable - if it weren't 100% true! Strathdee and Patterson masterfully weave together the personal, medical, and scientific strands of their battle against one of the world's worst superbugs, bringing not just Patterson, but a century-old medical technology back from the brink of death. This first-hand account of the front lines of the battle against the scourge of antimicrobial resistance underscores the human cost underlying the bland statistics."—Rob Knight, PhD, Director, Center for Microbiome Innovation, University of California San Diego and author of Follow Your Gut and Dirt Is Good

"[A] riveting tale...The saga reads like a thriller....Remarkable passages from Patterson [describe] how he interpreted events through veils of feverish delirium, pain-killer fog, and coma."—Laurie Garrett, The Lancet

"The story of a woman fighting for her husband's life is interesting in and of itself, but this book is so much more than that. It was written by a scientist who used her public health training to discover a solution to a problem; it just so happens that the solution she found may be an answer to one of the most urgent health problems in the world."—American Journal of Public Health

"[A] real page-turner."—Science News

"I simply could not put down the book. It reads like a fast-paced, detective thriller."—Madhukar Pai, MD, PhD, Professor and Canada Research Chair in Epidemiology & Global Health, McGill University, Montreal

"[A] medical thriller for the antibiotic-resistant age."—Smithsonian

"[Tom's case is a] case that may mark a turning point in medicine."—American Association of Medical Colleges Newsletter

"A riveting, pulse-pounding medical thriller that just happens to be true. Steffanie Strathdee is expert at weaving science into compulsively readable prose."—Tess Gerritsen, New York Times bestselling author of THE SHAPE OFNIGHT

"...A memoir that reads like a thriller."—New York Times Book Review

"If you're looking for a gift for a young person currently considering a career in science or medicine, this is the book to buy."—AJTMH journal

"The Perfect Predator may be the best and most important book I've ever read... [A] personal and moving odyssey."—Louis R. Franzini, The Florida-Times Union

From the Publisher

★ 01/31/2019

Epidemiologist Strathdee and psychiatrist Patterson are vacationing in Egypt in 2015 at the onset of this gripping and intriguing medical thriller. After crawling into a pyramid, Patterson falls violently ill. Strathdee, his wife, initially attributes his sickness to food poisoning, but doctors in an Egyptian clinic soon diagnose acute pancreatitis, later found to be complicated by a football-sized pseudocyst infected with an antibiotic-resistant superbug. Eventually medivaced home to San Diego, Patterson is hospitalized while Strathdee balances her role as a loving caregiver with a “pit bull scientist’s” determination to save her 69-year-old husband. He suffers several bouts of septic shock, goes into coma, and is placed on a ventilator. With the support of a global team of doctors and researchers, Strathdee pursues a nearly forgotten century-old treatment called phage therapy, which employs a virus administered through drains and IV, “the perfect predator,” to wage battle against the menacing bacteria. After eight weeks of phage therapy and a total of nine months in the hospital, Patterson is discharged to his home, where he continues to improve. Along with the chronicle of Patterson’s struggle is the authors’ incisive commentary on the alarming superbug problem worldwide, which they assert is perhaps even more concerning to the human race than climate change. This page-turner of a couple’s determination to survive also serves as a dire warning regarding the consequences of the overuse of antibiotics. Agent: Gail Ross, the Ross Yoon Agency. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

Christine Lakin is the principal narrator of Strathdee’s story of her terrifying and frantic mission to save her husband, psychologist Thomas Patterson, from the deadly and multidrug-resistant superbug A. BAUMANNII. Lakin sweeps listeners into an account as terrifying as it is enthralling. When every approved treatment fails, Strathdee looks for any alternatives, finding a possibility in phage therapy, dismissed a century ago by clinicians. Lakin’s portrayal of Strathdee’s hunt presents true desperation, while passages on the history of antibiotics and the mounting difficulties faced by contemporary medicine ring with authority. Her husband’s side is not forgotten; interludes by Dan Woren give listeners Patterson’s perspective on fighting one of nature’s most lethal bacteria. E.J.F. 2020 Audies Finalist © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine

MARCH 2019 - AudioFile

2019-03-03

A real-life medical thriller that proves when science, medicine, and perseverance align, "the impossible becomes possible."

In 2015, infectious disease epidemiologist Strathdee (Global Health Sciences/Univ. of California, San Diego School of Medicine) and her husband, Patterson, a psychologist, were on vacation in Egypt when he was infected with one of the deadliest antibiotic-resistant superbugs on the planet. In a few terrifying days, his health deteriorated to the point where it was uncertain whether modern medicine could help him. As Strathdee writes, "Tom was quickly becoming the poster child for the dystopian future of the post-antibiotic age." In this fast-paced memoir, the authors describe how Strathdee scoured scientific history and identified an unconventional cure: phage therapy, in which a virus is utilized as a bacterial killer. The catch was that phage therapy hadn't been used in the United States in nearly a century, and no one knew how to find the right virus, purify it to meet FDA standards, and administer it safely. Miraculously, Strathdee overcame every one of these obstacles with the help of kindhearted and intrepid researchers from around the world. Despite the potential heartbreak that lurks within every chapter, the writing is always infused with humor, hope, and intelligence, and the couple's remarkable story is grounded in real-life details that bring readers directly into their world: desperate late-night emails to people who might help, on-the-fly Googling of critical care lingo, impromptu dance parties at Tom's bedside. The book also includes dark, surreal poetic interludes from Patterson's perspective, providing a glimpse into the patient's mindset, an interesting contrast to the chronicle of his wife's relentless effort to save him.

Strathdee's recognition as one of TIME's 50 Most Influential People in Health Care is unquestionably well-deserved; as this page-turning book shows, she is a hero whose insight and determination could serve as models to help save many more lives.

Kirkus Reviews