Scientists Evaluating Phages To Tackle Growing Problem Of Antimicrobial-Resistant Infections

CNN (1/21, LaMotte) reports that “one of nature’s oldest predators – tiny tripod-looking viruses called phages designed to find, attack and gobble up bacteria” – are being used to treat “patients dying from superbug infections and are being used in clinical trials as a potential solution to the growing problem of antibiotic resistance.” These antimicrobial-resistant infections “are a ‘urgent global public health threat,’ killing 5 million people worldwide, according to 2019 statistics from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.” To increase the chance of “success, specialists search for a variety of phages to tackle a particularly nasty superbug – at times creating a cocktail of microscopic warriors that can hopefully continue the attack when one is neutralized.”