Spread of antibiotic resistance revives interest in bacteria-killing viruses - Financial Times

Bacteria-killing viruses can provide a crucial extra tool in the fight against antibiotic resistance, researchers believe — leading to increased interest in their use, alongside the development of new drugs.

However, in recent years, interest in phages has grown as bacteria evolve to become resistant to antibiotic drugs — a development branded a “pandemic” by public health experts and one that caused 1.27mn deaths in 2019.

But the great potential for phages as a treatment lies in the fact that there are usually several for each species of bacterium being targeted, and they are specific to it — leaving beneficial bacteria in the body unharmed.

One case in 2016 involved an American man who entered a coma and developed multi-organ failure after antibiotics proved ineffective against an infection he acquired on a cruise holiday.

A review of 59 clinical studies, published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases last year, found that, of 1,904 patients with chronic and drug-resistant infections treated with phages, 79 per cent showed improvement.

In the UK, a parliamentary science committee began investigating the barriers to the development and use of phage therapy late last year.