Doctors use viruses to fight antibiotic-resistant bacteria
A study in Belgium showed 77 per cent improvement in patients receiving personalised phage therapy for difficult infections.
Doctors are using bacteriophages, which are viruses that infect bacteria, to treat infections that no longer respond to antibiotics, according to a report by the Times of India.
In a study involving 100 patients in Belgium, 77.2 per cent of infections showed clinical improvement after receiving personalised phage therapy. The study, published in the journal Nature Microbiology, noted that targeted bacteria were successfully eliminated in 61.3 per cent of cases.
The patients in the study received treatment between January 2008 and April 2022. Many had already undergone conventional antibiotic treatments without sufficient success.
Phages target specific bacterial species or strains, which can leave useful bacteria in the human body alone. However, the treatment often requires being used alongside antibiotics to be effective.
To standardise the process, an international team led by the German Society for Infectious Diseases has created the first set of clinical guidelines for personalised phage therapy. These recommendations were published in Nature Medicine in September 2026.
The guidelines involve 20 professional organisations and 18 international experts. They provide more than 60 recommendations regarding phage selection, testing, manufacturing, administration, and patient monitoring.