As this couple cycles through their grief, a vaccine to save other babies is tested
A vaccine against the illness that killed 3-week-old Lupine Genest is in clinical trials
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that → save → trials
“She was pretty lively,” said Alexandre Genest, remembering his daughter, Lupine, as an infant.
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Genest → say → infant
“She had long hair already.”
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She → have → hair
“And big, sparkly eyes,” added his wife, Carly Wedge, Lupine’s mom.
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wife → add → ?
But after just three weeks with their "perfectly healthy" baby, the new parents were plunged into their worst nightmare.
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parents → plunge → nightmare
At their home on Nova Scotia’s South Shore, Lupine suddenly turned ill, and her parents took her to the nearby regional hospital.
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parents → turn → hospital
Doctors ordered that she be sent to Halifax’s children’s hospital, where she was taken into intensive care.
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she → order → care
Five days later, she was gone.
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she → go → ?
A picture of Lupine Genest follows her dad's bicycle as he travels around Nova Scotia's highways and trails.
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he → follow → highways
Lupine was infected by Group B Streptococcus, or GBS, which led to sepsis and meningitis.
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which → infect → sepsis
GBS is a common bacterium that many adults carry without symptoms, but it causes life-threatening illness in babies.
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it → carry → babies
Pregnant women are often screened for GBS, and if they test positive, they’re given a preventative round of antibiotics during labour.
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they → screen → labour
The antibiotics can protect newborns during the first week of life, but not beyond.
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antibiotics → protect → life
For cases that begin later in infancy, such as Lupine’s, there is no means of prevention — yet.
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that → begin → prevention
Now, as Lupine would be turning six months old, Wedge and Genest are touring around Nova Scotia on their bicycles — working through their grief, raising money for the hospital that tried to save her, and spreading the word about a vaccine that’s in development.
“It's a rare thing, what happened to Lupine, but I think when it happens to you, it doesn't really matter that it's rare and you just want something to change,” said Wedge.
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Wedge → turn → you
“A cure,” added Genest.
A vaccine on the horizon
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. → add → horizon
What makes GBS so dangerous is that it escalates very quickly, said Dr. Joanne Langley, pediatric infectious disease specialist at the IWK Health Centre — the children's hospital where Lupine was treated.
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Lupine → make → Centre
“By the time you get the baby to care and start care, the baby has often become very unwell.
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baby → get → care
And so even our best treatment will not catch up, in some cases.
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treatment → catch → cases
"Preventing this disease is the best strategy,” she said.
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she → prevent → disease
Langley is an investigator at the Canadian Center for Vaccinology, and she’s working on a Phase 3 clinical trial for a maternal GBS vaccine.
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she → work → vaccine
Researchers have been trying to develop a vaccine against GBS since the 1970s, but Langley said no attempt has advanced as far as the current one, by Pfizer.
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attempt → try → Pfizer
Depending on how the current trial progresses, and on regulatory approvals, she said the vaccine could be widely available in the next few years.
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vaccine → depend → years
“This will be just an overwhelming advance in the care of women and babies,” said Langley.
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Langley → say → women
The World Health Organization says GBS causes about 150,000 stillbirths and infant deaths globally, each year, and vaccines could prevent more than 50 per cent of infant GBS cases.
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vaccines → say → cases
GBS can also lead to preterm birth, and a vaccine may lower that risk, too, according to the WHO.
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vaccine → lead → WHO
Wedge and Genest say their baby girl, Lupine, was perfectly healthy for the first three weeks of her life.
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girl → say → life
Then she suddenly turned severely ill.
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she → turn → ?
In addition to preventing illness and death, Langley said the vaccine could also reduce the use of antibiotics in pregnant women who screen positive.
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who → prevent → women
“That's a good thing, because the normal bacteria that mom has on her skin and her vagina are all healthy and part of the newborn's eventual microbiome,” she said.
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she → have → microbiome
Pfizer is testing the vaccine at more than 200 locations across the globe, including four in Canada.
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Pfizer → test → Canada
Wedge said it feels like serendipity that the clinical trial started in Nova Scotia shortly after Lupine’s death.
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trial → say → death
"The more I learn about GBS, the more passionate I feel about making sure something is done to hopefully prevent other families from going through what we went through," she said.
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she → learn → what
Alexandre Genest and Carly Wedge stand by their bicycles at Summerville Beach Provincial Park, N.S., in early October 2026.
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Genest → stand → October
As she and Genest cycle along Nova Scotia's rural roads and trails, they’re pulling a small trailer displaying Lupine’s picture, and sharing their journey on social media.
They said it’s been healing, talking to people about their daughter.
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it → cycle → daughter
At the same time, they’re trying to get people interested in the vaccine; they want to see the clinical trial get all the participants it needs.
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it → try → participants
“We're trying to get the word out to as many people who might be interested as possible, to help them push the science forward,” said Wedge.
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Wedge → try → science
Langley said because of the newness of the vaccine, the risks are unknown.
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risks → say → vaccine
The current study is specifically meant to test its safety.
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study → mean → safety
Langley said investigators have not seen any serious events associated with the shot, so far.
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investigators → say → shot
…and 1 more, not listed.
The Aporia
