40 - Phage
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Water Purification in the Backcountry and Course on Comparative Biology
Learn about the best methods for purifying drinking water in remote areas, focusing on filtering protozoa, bacteria, and viruses. The chapter also includes a unique anecdote on bacteriophages discussed during a biology course and provides details on obtaining CME or MOC credits.
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Bacteriophages -- viruses that target and kill bacteria -- were one of the most promising medical treatments of the early 20th century, and were used to treat all sorts of infections, from cholera to staph, and everything in between. But by the 1950s, they had all but died out in the West. This episode tells the story of the humble phage, from its discovery in the waters of the Ganges, love trysts ending in a KGB execution, and to a resurgence of this once forgotten therapy in the 21st century as an answer to antibiotic resistance.
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