3 January 2017 - Tracey Ceccarelli’s father, Alberto, spent around five months in and out of hospitals before it was discovered that he suffered from a parasitic illness called strongyloidias. By the time it was diagnosed, the medicine, ivermectin, wasn’t able to save him.

When an Alberta man mysteriously fell ill in the fall, it took a team of doctors and a biopsy of the patient’s muscle tissue to discover the cause: sarcocystosis, a rare parasitic infection.

The patient’s doctors wanted to treat him with albendazole, a common anti-worm pill that has been used safely around the globe for more than 20 years, and which is on the World Health Organization’s list of essential medicines.

But albendazole is not available in Canada. A Health Canada program that allows seriously ill patients to obtain unlicensed drugs – known as the Special Access Programme – turned down the doctors’ request.

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