When Antibiotics Fail: Need for Phage Therapy

More people seek bacteriophage therapy in Georgia

Georgia hosts a unique scientific institute where bacteriophages—viruses that destroy bacterial cells—are studied. Bacteriophages (or simply “phages”) essentially serve as antibiotics. However, there’s still insufficient scientific research on them, so you won’t find phages recommended for treatment. But experts claim this is temporary. With bacterial resistance to antibiotics increasing annually, scientists believe the future lies with phages. In this regard, there’s much for the world to learn from Georgia.

Chris Schafer’s life changed completely on the eve of Christmas 2018 in California. He required urgent surgery due to a perforated colon. The surgical intervention led to several complications. Due to prolonged antibiotic treatment, Escherichia coli bacteria in his body produced beta-lactamases, rendering them resistant to antibiotics.

Bacterial resistance to antibiotics means bacteria adapt to the drug, rendering it ineffective.

“I couldn’t even go to the bathroom, I felt really bad. I took antibiotics. The period when I had no symptoms without antibiotics gradually shortened, and eventually, I reached a stage where symptoms recurred within 1-2 days after stopping antibiotic intake,” Chris Schafer recalls.

American doctors believed the only solution was intravenous antibiotic administration. Chris remembers that this procedure required hospitalization, and doctors couldn’t guarantee its effectiveness. That’s when he decided to independently seek alternative treatment methods.

His search led him to phages—specific viruses that only destroy certain bacteria, and once the quantity of these bacteria diminishes, the phage “voluntarily” leaves the body. Unlike phages, most antibiotics have a broad spectrum of activity, meaning they kill both harmful and beneficial bacteria in the body.

No one in Chris’s circle, including American doctors, knew anything about bacteriophages. For months, he researched this topic and sought out people whose lives had been changed by phage therapy. Finally, he decided to come to Tbilisi.

IMPROPER USE OF ANTIBIOTICS LED TO THEIR RESISTANCE

“As an American, I was initially very skeptical. I thought that if I met these people in person and talked to them, I would understand whether this was true or just a scam.

And now, I want to tell you that the Eliava Institute exists [The George Eliava Institute of Bacteriophages, Microbiology, and Virology in Tbilisi] and phages really work,” Chris says.

Chris arrived in Georgia on June 5, 2022. Four months later, phage therapy produced results that couldn’t be achieved in two years of antibiotic treatment.

Chris returned to normal life and asserts that phages saved him:

“Today, I am alive and believe one hundred percent that if I hadn’t gone to the Eliava Institute, I wouldn’t be alive to talk to you now.”