Viruses that heal

Phage Therapy: Fighting Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria With Viruses – video

Phages are everywhere. They are found in sewage, wastewater, soil, marine water, animal intestines, and even in the human gut. There are more bacteriophages than any other viruses, and, in fact, they are the most abundant organism on Earth (numbering more than 10³¹). This makes them an attractive weapon against antibiotic resistance, “one of the biggest threats to global health, food security, and development today,” according to the World Health Organization.

Antibiotic resistance poses a significant danger to everyone. It results from such practices as the overuse of antibiotics, and from inappropriately administering them to treat viruses in people or promote growth in livestock. This allows pathogens to elude the very drugs designed to kill them. Common infections, such as pneumonia, staph, gonorrhea, and tuberculosis, are becoming resistant and very hard to treat.

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This article earlier appeared in the “Johns Hopkins University Hub” Website

References are available bellow.

https:// hub.jhu.edu/2021/05/04/bacteriophage-antibiotic-resistance/