PHAGES KILL SUPERBUGS - NATURALLY & SAFELY!

Phages - The bacterium's Nemesis!
Although we don't think twice when we are vaccinated with deactivated viruses, it seems to require a leap of faith to entertain the thought of us being treated using bacteriophage therapy, using benign bacteria-destroying viruses. Until we overcome our squeemishness, we must resign ourselves to the relentless onslaught of MRSA and other antibiotic-resistant bacteria. With drug companies reluctant to produce new antibiotics, fearing that doctors are now wary of antibiotic resistance, there is now no alternative but to go back to using nature's answer to bacteria, phages.

Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus,or MRSA, one of the most feared hospital acquired infections stalking our wards today, can be vanquished by using its natural killer, phages. There is a phage virus for every bacterium; it's nature's way of keeping things in balance. Therapy using phages, once the only cure for bacterial infection, is making a come-back; it's back to the future!

Phages are wonderful little viruses which only attack bacteria, leaving animal and plant cells unharmed. Empirical evidence has never shown any harmful effects of phages on the human system. In fact Felix d'Herelle, the reputed dicoverer of phages, himself drank litres of phage broth to demonstrate its harmlessness, prior to administrating it to a young boy dying of dysentry. The boy recovered within a week!

Phages Vs Antibiotics Drug companies are geared to high-tech solutions where something as simple as a phage has no place. The phage also needs to be selected for the specific bacteria found at the wound site, requiring intelligent doctoring and a non-standard approach to medicine. This model fits not at all well with drug company modus operandi and shareholder profit aims.

The inexorable rise in MRSA we are now witnessing, is due to the initial uncontrolled medical use of antibiotics (they were sold over-the-counter in the USA for many years after their genesis), and as growth promoters by a rapacious farming community not heeding the concerns of scientists that bacteria would, not could, develop resistance to antibiotics. Even Fleming, the discoverer of penicillin, voiced concerns in the 1930s when he said that if penicillin were to be sold over the counter, people would mis-use it and resistant strains would develop. How true his words now!

When a strain of bacteria becomes resistant to an antibiotic it really thrives, because most of its neighbours, both malign and benign, have also been wiped out, leaving the field free for it to dominate. Anyone who has ever had loose bowels during a course of antibiotics will know what I mean! MRSA used to mean Methycillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus - now it means Multi-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus, such is the resistance of the Staph bacteria to a host of antibiotics. Vancomycin, more expensive gram-for-gram than gold, with more serious side effects, used to be the ultimate bacteria killer but, guess what, it too is becoming ineffective. There is now nothing left in reserve!

What can humans do to prevent antibotic resistance? Too late, the Genie is out of the bag and the clock cannot be turned back. Bacteria very quickly now become resistant to everything chemical that is thrown at them. The phage, the natural predator of the bacteria, seems our best solution, which is where the question of pride comes in.

Because phage therapy was initially very empirical and the electron microscope was not invented until the late 1930s, the exact workings of phages was not known. Doctors noticed that patients who survived their illness had phages in their faeces which, when filtered out and given to other sufferers, cured them too of the illnes. What also amazed them was the speed at which phages worked. People on death's doorstep recovered in a few days; a tribute to the speed with which the phage multiplied and overcame its host bacteria.

Phages book by Stephen McGrath

YOU'RE SAFE IF YOU'RE A VEGETABLE!

In response to the recent sanctioning by the USA FDA for phages to be used against vegetable diseases, I penned the following ditty. This sums up the blinkered attitude of most regulatory authorities to phages. Phages have been 'field tested' on the population of Georgia for the last 80 years, without side effects and yet are still being ignored as an effective, efficient and most of all, safe killer of bacteria.

While phages are deemed not suitable to help mere people fight MRSA etc., at least it will be of help to the vegetables we eat. Ironically, we will all be consuming phages with our vegetables soon anyway, which must really make the regulators and beurocrats angry!