the use of phages is not new and sadly has not been widely applied
yale must teach each patient history and its application
do phages exist for multidrug venereal diseases?
south nassau communities hospital is a church sponsored death trap that knows only of vancomycin
And nothing of phafes or bcg
perhaps this guy once travelled to russia and eastern europe in person or by reading
if only phages were a part of the public schhool curtivulum in the united states
can use treat a pseudomonas aeriginos ear ache with phages too and thus avoid systemic snyibiotic exposre
not a single hardworking life saving babushka
mentioned in this article
Using 1 germ to fight another when today's antibiotics fail
Scientists are racing to find novel alternatives to traditional antibiotics, a hunt that is uncovering unusual ways to counter infection, in unusual places.
Yale University researcher Benjamin Chan, who studies viruses that attack bacteria, prepares a petri dish with mucus from a patient at Osborn Memorial Laboratories in New Haven, Conn., on Jan. 17. Photo Credit: AP/Richard Drew
NEW HAVEN, Conn. — Bacteria lodged deep in Ella Balasa's lungs were impervious to most antibiotics. At 26, gasping for breath, she sought out a dramatic experiment — deliberately inhaling a virus culled from sewage to attack her superbug.
"I'm really running out of options," said Balasa, who traveled from her Richmond, Virginia, home to Yale University for the last-resort treatment. "I know it might not have an effect. But I am very hopeful."
Pitting one germ against another may sound radical, but it's a sign of a growing global crisis. Increasingly people are dying of infections that once were easy to treat because many common bugs have evolved to withstand multiple antibiotics. Some, dubbed "nightmare bacteria," are untreatable. Now scientists are racing to find novel alternatives to traditional antibiotics, a hunt that is uncovering unusual ways to counter infection, in unusual places.
One possible treatment tricks bacteria out of a nutrient they need to survive. Others rev up the immune system to better fend off germs.
And viruses called bacteriophages — discovered a century ago but largely shelved in the West when easier-to-use antibiotics came along — are being tried in a handful of emergency cases.
"People's frustration with antibiotic resistance boiled over," said Yale biologist Benjamin Chan, who travels the world collecting phages and receives calls from desperate patients asking to try them. "We're more appreciative of the fact that we need alternatives."
Nature's bacterial predator, each phage variety targets a different bacterial strain. Originally used to treat dysentery in the early 20th century, today Chan looks in places like ditches, ponds, and, yes, sewage treatment plants for types that attack a variety of human infections.
"The best places are often really dirty places, because we're dirty animals," he said.
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