What Are Phages?

Phages (short form of Bacteriophages) are viruses that destroy many of the bacteria that create terrible harm in humans, animals and many of our wonderful plant species, and even our marvelous coral reefs. With the threat of global warming, there is also the fear that many of these bacteria borne diseases may increase their levels of fatal or disability creating effects.

History (From Wikipedia) 

Since ancient times, there have been documented reports of river water having the ability to cure infectious diseases, such as leprosy. In 1896, Ernest Hanbury Hankin reported that something in the waters of the Ganges and Jumna rivers in India had marked antibacterial action against cholera and could pass through a very fine porcelain filter. In 1915, British bacteriologist Frederick Twort, superintendent of the Brown Institution of London, discovered a small agent that infected and killed bacteria. He considered the agent either 1) a stage in the life cycle of the bacteria, 2) an enzyme produced by the bacteria themselves or 3) a virus that grew on and destroyed the bacteria. Twort's work was interrupted by the onset of World War I and shortage of funding. Independently, French-Canadian microbiologist Félix d'Hérelle, working at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, announced on September 3, 1917 that he had discovered "an invisible, antagonistic microbe of the dysentery bacillus".

 For d’Hérelle, there was no question as to the nature of his discovery: "In a flash I had understood: what caused my clear spots was in fact an invisible microbe ... a virus parasitic on bacteria." D'Hérelle called the virus a bacteriophage or bacteria-eater (from the Greek phagein meaning to eat). He also recorded a dramatic account of a man suffering from dysentery who was restored to good health by the bacteriophages. In 1926 in the Pulitzer-prizewinning novel Arrowsmith, Sinclair Lewis fictionalized the application of bacteriophages as a therapeutic agent. Also in the 1920s the Eliava Institute was opened in Tbilisi, Georgia to research this new science and put it into practice. In 2006 the UK Ministry of Defence took responsibility for a G8-funded Global Partnership Priority Eliava Project as a retrospective study to explore the potential of bacteriophages for the 21st century. (End of Wikipedia material)

The History of the Eliava Institute:

Eliava Institute itself is a fascinating story that I will leave for another Blog, but briefly The Institute was opened in Tbilisi, Georgia in 1923, and was a bacteriology laboratory. Its founder, Prof. George Eliava, was not aware of bacteriophages until 1926. In that year he met Felix d'Herelle during a visit to the Pasteur Institute in Paris. There, Eliava was enthusisatic about the potential of phage in the curing of bacterial disease, and invited d'Herelle to visit his laboratory in Georgia. Sadly Professor Eliava was executed by the Stalin Regime, but his works lives on today and bacteriophage samples are supplied to many countries, including Australia. 

Phage Therapy

(From Wikipedia)    Phages were discovered to be anti-bacterial agents and put to use as such soon after they were discovered, with varying success. However, antibiotics were discovered some years later and marketed widely, popular because of their broad spectrum; also easier to manufacture in bulk, store and prescribe. Hence development of phage therapy was largely abandoned in the West, but continued throughout 1940s in the former Soviet Union for treating bacterial infections, with widespread use including the soldiers in the Red Army - much of the literature being in Russian or Georgian, and unavailable for many years in the West. This has continued after the war, with widespread use continuing in Georgia and elsewhere in Eastern Europe. There is anecdotal evidence there, but no completed clinical trials in the US or Western Europe

Phage therapy has been attempted for the treatment of a variety of bacterial infections including: laryngitis, skin infections, dysentery, conjunctivitis, periodontitis, gingivitis, sinusitis, urinary tract infections and intestinal infections, burns, boils, etc.[2] - also poly-microbial biofilms on chronic wounds, ulcers and infected surgical sites    (End of Wikipedia)

 Where Do We Go From Here?

Hopefully, a very long way. As the effectiveness of current antibiotics are rapidly reduced, death rates will rise. (In Australian Hospitals, the death rate from "Golden Staph" are around 20% and rising. There is a form of virulent TB that has a death rate of 85%, which is frightening, but both are treatable with Phage Therapy. Exciting research continues in Georgia, Poland, Russia, Israel, Australia, UK. France and other countries in Europe and the United States, just to name a few. 

Gradually, I will pass on what I am learning, and we can all make sure that our Doctors, Nurses and other Health Specialists and Ministers of Health, and Hospitals will react quickly and save hundreds of thousands of lives.

Sadly, the 1,200 deaths from Cholera, recently in ZIMBABWE, were largely preventable., as it has been known for a very long time that Phage Therapy is very successful with this disease..

This Blog Site is dedicated to those who lost their lives in that epidemic and as a reminder that we must act as soon as we can, to especially insure that those suffering illnesses than can be prevented or treated by Phage Therapy, get this as soon as possible. And above all, in the Developing World, where antibiotics are often too expensive.