Phage therapy
Prior to the discovery of antibiotics by Alexander Fleming in 1928, phage were being explored as a method for treating bacterial infections. In the post-antibiotic era, the convenient broad-spectrum activity of antibiotic treatment meant that in most organization’s research into phage therapy was abandoned. However, in many of the former Soviet nations where there was a lack of western antibiotics, research into phage therapies continued through necessity. With the increasing global problems of antibiotic resistance, there has been a resurgence in the phage therapy field in recent years. Whilst phage are able to infect and destroy bacteria and have been successfully used to treat life-threatening infection13, their species and even strain specificity and potential for pre-existing immunity of some bacteria mean targeting a phage treatment is currently not a trivial process and must be tailored to the individual infection. This makes it costly and lengthy. Consequently, it is currently a last resort and there is still much work required in this field…
PHAGElogist 