
Antibiotics failing, scientists are using killer viruses to fight superbugs - charlysl
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/610066/faced-with-failing-antibiotics-scientists-are-using-killer-viruses-to-fight-superbugs/
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cstross
> If the new approaches work, phage therapy could eventually become a
> mainstream option for treating bacterial infections.

Phages _were_ the mainstream option for treating serious antibiotic infections
in the USSR prior to 1990, but this was never commercialized in the west (AIUI
it couldn't be patented because of the glaringly obvious prior art so nobody
bothered) and disappeared after 1991 — collateral damage due to the end of
communism (you could make more profits selling antibiotics to Russian
hospitals).

It's kind of ironic that this technique is now being rediscovered, although
the synergy with the arrival of cheap nanopore RNA/DNA sequencers should be
noted (these devices make it much easier to rapidly identify the precise
strain of pathogen causing an infection, and thereby choose the correct
phage).

