Could this Soviet-era medical treatment help curb antibiotic resistance?

Apr 22, 2016

Christian LaVallee prepares solutions for polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests at the Health Protection Agency in north London March 9, 2011. For decades scientists have managed to develop new medicines to stay at least one step ahead of the ever-mutating enemy, bacteria. Now, though, we may be running out of road. Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, commonly known as MRSA, alone is estimated to kill around 19,000 people every year in the United States -- far more than HIV and AIDS -- and a similar number in Europe, and other drug-resistant superbugs are spreading. Picture taken March 9, 2011. To match Special Report ANTIBIOTICS/

The use of phage therapy – using bacteria-specific viruses to kill pathogens – could reduce antibiotic demand. Image: REUTERS/Suzanne Plunkett

Ville Friman

Lecturer in Evolutionary Biology, University of York

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