40 - Phage
Bedside Rounds
The Rise and Fall of Bacteriophage Therapy
This chapter traces the transformative era in medicine marked by the discovery of bacteriophages and their potential as a treatment for bacterial infections. It discusses the pioneering work of scientists like Felix Durelle in perfecting phage therapy, the initial success, heated debates, and subsequent decline of bacteriophage therapy in the West due to various factors including the emergence of antibiotics and Cold War politics.
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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