Phage
therapy developed in
Georgia of the
former USSR.
Phage, meaning to eat, may be the answer to the issue of
antibiotic resistant bacteria super-bugs. Bacteriophages are
actually predatorial viruses that hunt and reproduce within
specific bacteria; coding and binding on specific bacteria
receptor cites. The Phage virus attaches itself to the bacteria
and injects the bacteria with its own genetic material, causing
the bacteria to replicate more phage virus within its cell body.
Once the phage have reproduced, they rupture the bacteria's cell
membrane, killing it as they exit; traveling on to infect other
bacteria.
These viruses have proved particularly useful in
clinical / institutional setting in Georgia where (like in most other
places in the world) nomocomial spawned bacteria have become
resistant to even the most recent, powerful variants of
antibiotics. The use of phage viruses can make clinical
procedures appear like a kind of retro-future biological warfare
-
as seen in the documentary
“The virus that Cures” - where doctors
pour phage over wounds, deliver it to patients orally in a
multi-phage cocktail, treat surgical incision with phage-mist
delivered by ultrasonic wands, administer phage intravenously,
spray phage on surgical instruments and around the operating
room.
Unfortunately this scientific research had gotten little
attention until recently in the west. Despite recent
re-interest, many western medical institutions consider phage
therapy to be little more than quackery. Even though phage has
been long-tested in the former USSR, many complaints from the
modern medical community lay in the so called less than rigorous
standards of the Georgian researchers and facilities that have
been developing phage therapy for more than half a
century.
Some additional trials and
work have been begun by a modest number of British and American
researchers, seeking to bring phage therapy up to speed with the
rigors and standards of the modern scientific and medical
community. Despite some evidence that phage activity may cause
some bacteria to mutate and become more deadly in limited cases,
the prognosis for phage as a treatment for bacterial infection
looks promising.