AH Challenge: Widespread use of Bacteriophages

The challenge here is to make the use of bacteriophages more widespread as a method of treating bacterial infections. I would also like to know what the potential effects would be. I would think that this would have a number of benefits over anti-biotics since the phages evolve with the bacteria, meaning that you don't get superbugs like you do through the overuse of anti-biotics.

Bonus points if you get this to happen without delaying the development of anti-biotics.

For information on Bacteriophages:
Here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phage_therapy
Here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacteriophage
 
I think we just don't know alot about medicine on this board.

Seems to me bacteriophages would be more limited compared with pennicilin since it only works on specific bacterial infections. It would also require very high level diagnosis to match the correct treatment to the infection.

It's probably the way of the future. Dunno how it could be done in the past.
 
I'm told that bacteriaphages were used a lot in the former USSR and there's been more interest in them due to the problems associated with antibiotic resistance.

BPs might be the wave of the future.
 

Thande

Donor
I'm told that bacteriaphages were used a lot in the former USSR and there's been more interest in them due to the problems associated with antibiotic resistance.
It's based on Georgian traditional medicine which uses natural sources of bacteriophages IIRC.

Of course there will be disadvantages to this approach, too; we just won't have discovered them yet. (Possibly spread mutagenic DNA between bacteria, for instance).
 
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