Bacteriophage Therapy

Bacteriophages are viruses that infect and attack bacteria. They are estimated to be the most widely distributed and diverse entities in the biosphere. One of the densest natural sources for phages and other viruses is sea water, where up to 9×108 virions per milliliter have been found in microbial mats at the surface, and up to 70% of marine bacteria may be infected by phages.

They have been used for over 60 years as an alternative to antibiotics in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. They are seen as a possible therapy against multi drug resistant strains of many bacteria.

Now, due to their limited usage and availability, they are unfortunately not the most convenient or affordable therapy out there. (Hopefully, this will change if the West adopts and further develops this approach too.) But, they are potentially a permanent cure for patients with basically no side effects.

Source: Polish Academy of Sciences
Institute of Immunology and Experimental Therapy
Centre of Excellence since October 2002

Results of bacteriophage treatment (1307 cases)

1307 patients with suppurative bacterial infections caused by multidrug resistant bacteria of different species were treated with specific bacteriophages (BP). BP therapy was highly effective; full recovery was noted in 1123 cases (85.9%). In 134 cases (10.9%) transient improvement was observed and only in 50 cases (3.8%) BP treatment was found to be ineffective. The results confirm the high effectiveness of BP therapy in combating bacterial infections which do not respond to treatment with all available antibiotics.

2311 out of 2433 bacterial isolates (95%) of Staphylococcus were sensitive to the set of phages.

Typical cost:

Out-patient care: $2,500.00 - $7,500.00
In-patient care: $5,000.00 - $20,000

Normally, it can take up to 4 weeks from receipt of your samples and reports to complete our laboratory analysis.

So, it's not a cheap therapy (although cheap compared to hospital stays) yet, and the logistical process can take a month or more. However, it has a high success rate and is essentially a cure, not just a management treatment..

And, the Phage Therapy Center can even import to you your phages without you having to fly to Tbilisi, Georgia in person - as long as you get your doctor's prescription for that.

Although I'm not sure if this would decrease the cost of the treatment any - or if the out-patient estimate already assumes this..