Michael Le Page is a person.
The viruses are attacking a bacterium.
ILexx is a photographer.
In Belgium, the use of phages to treat antibiotic-resistant infections is starting to take off. More than 100 people have been given phage therapies there, thanks to a regulatory system that makes it easier for doctors to prescribe them.
According to Jean-Paul Pirnay at the Queen Astrid Military Hospital in Belgium, phage therapy is becoming more common. In just over 100 patients, we have coordinated phage treatments.
The results of all these cases will be published soon. He says that there is a clinical improvement in about 70% of cases. Most of the patients were desperate after antibiotics failed.
In a research paper published today, Pirnay and colleagues describe one of these cases. A woman was seriously injured in a suicide bombing at the airport. She was given antibiotics when she was admitted to the Erasme Hospital in Belgium.
After several months, intensive antibiotic treatments caused serious side effects, but they failed to clear the infection. Klebsiella pneumoniae is a strain of bacterium that is resistant to almost all drugs.
Anas Eskenazi is a doctor. A sample of the bacterium was sent to the Eliava Institute in Georgia to find a phage that could kill it. The Eliava Institute has used phage therapy to treat infections.
The institute evolved the virus to make it even better at killing the bacterium. The therapy was ready to go ahead in November of 2016 but was put on hold because of concerns about safety and efficacy.
In countries like Georgia and Poland, where phage therapy has been used for a long time, there was very little scientific literature about the use of phage.
The woman was not improving and was finally treated with antibiotics and a phage. Her broken femur began to heal within weeks. She is able to walk again with crutches and is participating in sports.
There are obstacles to using phage therapy more widely despite the results. Ben Temperton says that specific strains ofbacteria can quickly evolve resistance. The Eliava Institute did a good job of changing the phages so they wouldn't resist.
Patients have been on failed antibiotics for a long time before they are considered.
How viruses are being used to keep food safe.
Efforts to develop off-the-shelf phage therapies containing a cocktail of different phage types would require continual tweaking to ensure they remain effective.
Eskenazi says that doctors should prefer the use of pre-adapted phage with antibiotics to get the phage-antibiotic synergy.
It is hard to get regulatory approval for these issues. Eskenazi had to get approval to try the therapy on the woman. In most countries, this is the case.
The Federal Agency for Medicines and Health Products in Belgium introduced a system that made it easier for doctors to try it.
The framework is being expanded to Europe.
Nature Communications is a journal.
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