Prevention magazine had an article by Koren Wetmore in the February 2015 edition that described "The Natural Superbug Cure" that no one is telling you about. It is about Bacteriophages. Discover Magazine also had a good article about it. Phage Therapy is the use of specialized viruses to attack and kill disease-causing bacteria.
The use of bacteriophages to cure diseases was done a lot in Russia prior to the development of antibiotics. Antibiotics were easier to use, and seemed safer at the time. Since the introduction of the first antibiotics, many other antibiotics have been developed to target specific types of bacteria. However the bacteria have developed resistance to many of the antibiotics. It is clear that by developing more phage therapies, we can bypass that antibiotic resistance and cure some diseases that could not be cured by antibiotics. Also, if we can hone the process and make it efficient enough, we could use phage therapy as a 'mainstream' form of fighting disease and prevent the bacteria from becoming resistant to the antibiotics. Of course, there is also the possibility that bacteria can develop a resistance or "immunity" to the phage viruses as well.
From what I've read, I think the Government should put some significant resources into the development of phage therapy. Others seem to think so too. See this article in Frontiers I see one of the problems with continuing the development of phage therapy is that it would be difficult to get a pharmaceutical company interested in developing the technology. It could take hundreds of millions of dollars to develop, test, and get FDA approval for new types of phage therapies. But the drug company would probably not be able to patent the idea, or get a reasonable return on the huge investment. In situations like this, the only solution is to use public funds to develop the technology. To be even more effective, it may require many countries to get together to share in the cost of development of the technology.
The use of bacteriophages to cure diseases was done a lot in Russia prior to the development of antibiotics. Antibiotics were easier to use, and seemed safer at the time. Since the introduction of the first antibiotics, many other antibiotics have been developed to target specific types of bacteria. However the bacteria have developed resistance to many of the antibiotics. It is clear that by developing more phage therapies, we can bypass that antibiotic resistance and cure some diseases that could not be cured by antibiotics. Also, if we can hone the process and make it efficient enough, we could use phage therapy as a 'mainstream' form of fighting disease and prevent the bacteria from becoming resistant to the antibiotics. Of course, there is also the possibility that bacteria can develop a resistance or "immunity" to the phage viruses as well.
From what I've read, I think the Government should put some significant resources into the development of phage therapy. Others seem to think so too. See this article in Frontiers I see one of the problems with continuing the development of phage therapy is that it would be difficult to get a pharmaceutical company interested in developing the technology. It could take hundreds of millions of dollars to develop, test, and get FDA approval for new types of phage therapies. But the drug company would probably not be able to patent the idea, or get a reasonable return on the huge investment. In situations like this, the only solution is to use public funds to develop the technology. To be even more effective, it may require many countries to get together to share in the cost of development of the technology.
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