Canada is the first market in the world with a solution that helps people with medical ports for things like dialysis and chemotherapy stave off possibly deadly infections. Currently, every year in Canada, there are 50-thousand bloodstream infections from these central venous catheters, or what some might know as a port. SterileCare is based out of Ontario, but its CEO Karen Mueller is originally from Humboldt and the Chief Scientific Officer, Chantal Lainesse works out of Saskatoon. SterileCare’s solution called KiteLock was approved for adults 3 years ago by Health Canada, and now it has been approved for children, thanks to testing through Toronto’s SickKids Hospital. Mueller explains that the solution goes into the port after an infusion, which cleans it out and guards against infection without harming the body as it goes through the bloodstream. Before KiteLock, 1 in 4 people who got infected would die from that infection. Mueller says during the testing at the children’s hospital, none of the children got infected. She believes this solution is particularly important because it’s not an antibiotic. Because bacteria is becoming more and more resistant to antibiotics, Mueller says it’s believed they won’t work for simple infections by 2030.