Yes, the unimaginable can be our hope.
It is quite impossible to think viruses can be a reliable solution to destroy bacteria. Unexpectedly, this specific virus called a bacteriophage or phage can be the bridge to cure the world’s rampant diseases.
One of the growing threats today is antibiotic resistance which is the ability of bacteria to resist the effects of an antibiotic, according to the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention.
Believe it or not, this phenomenon has the tendency to kill a staggering amount of 10 million people annually by 2050.
Discovered over a century ago by French and English scientists, a bacteriophage is a type of virus that feeds on bacteria by disrupting its own host cell. The phage therapy has been curing patients for decades. Back then, the Soviet Union reportedly subsidized comprehensively on phage therapy as a means to cure infected patients whose bodies rejected antibiotics.
Based on the 2014 status report from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, phage therapy was included as one of the seven approaches to “achieving a coordinated and nimble approach to addressing antibacterial resistance threats”.
One of the many advantages of bacteriophages is that they are bactericidal agents. If a certain bacteria is “successfully infected” by these phages, it will lose its ability to live and spread. Phages are also considered to be one of the most abundant organisms in the biosphere. Therefore, phages can be easily discovered often in wastewater or areas with a high concentration of bacteria.
In Georgia, the Phage Therapy Center has been working for over 80 year, “ the longest operating and most experienced clinic of its kind” in the country with an astounding success rate exceeding 95%.
This type of therapy should be thoroughly considered as a means to cure in the medical field because according to the WHO, the world is running out of antibiotics.
“Antimicrobial resistance is a global health emergency that will seriously jeopardize progress in modern medicine,” says Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of WHO. “There is an urgent need for more investment in research and development for antibiotic-resistant infections including TB, otherwise we will be forced back to a time when people feared common infections and risked their lives from minor surgery.”
Because of this said information, this kind of therapy should still be one of the main approaches to combat antibiotic resistance as it can save the lives of not only thousands, but millions.
Photo credits: Dr. Graham Beards
