What is phage therapy?
Phage therapy is the use of phages to treat bacterial infections.
Phages can be delivered to patients suffering from a bacterial infection to help treat and cure the illness.
One exciting potential about this form of treatment is that phage therapy can be individually tailored to each patient to treat the specific bacterial strain responsible for causing the infection.
Antibiotics are becoming less effective at treating bacterial infections
For almost a century antibiotics have been crucial for treating bacterial infections, however they are becoming less effective due to the antimicrobial resistance crisis.
Why do we need phage therapy?
Eventually, there may come a time when antibiotics can no longer treat serious bacterial infections. Phage therapy provides a solution to this and could be utilised to treat bacterial infections resistant to antibiotics.
What are some of the benefits of phage therapy?
Phages can kill bacteria resistant to antibiotics.
Phages are very specific. This means that phage therapy won’t harm the good bacteria which exist in our bodies, helping to limits side effects like nausea.
Phages multiply at the site of infection, which makes the treatment stronger where it is needed most.
Phage therapy can be used alongside other treatments like antibiotics to improve the overall effectiveness of patient care.
What is a potential risk of phage therapy which must be considered?
Whilst scientists have not observed strong immune responses from patients towards phages, there is still the possibility that phages may be recognised by the human immune system. This requires more research by the scientific community.