After reading chapters 5-8 in The Forgotten Cure, I was surprised by the advancement of phage therapy around the world and how it is affected by the political climate in a country as well as people’s varying perceptions on using this type of treatment.

When antibiotics were introduced to the Soviet Union by Howard Florey and Gordon Sanders, it quickly allowed doctors to treat Allied soldiers with penicillin manufactured in both Russia and America, also followed with streptomycin. However, in the 1900s antibiotics were not the best answer for treatment in Russia, which allowed for the prospect of using an “alternative medicine,” which was phage therapy. In the 1970s, an outbreak of staph bacteria of which 80% of the strains were resistant to antibiotics forced physicians to turn to rely even more on phages to fix the problem. Although Russia had some government funding for medicine during this time, most of the government funds went to weapons for war usage, thus stunting the development and advancement of medical treatments. The use of phage therapy was a more economical solution, and people liked the idea that it was a more natural substance. Unfortunately, the use of phages declined and eventually came to a stopping point when the Soviet Union ended.

The Eliava Institute of Bacteriophage, while focusing on the use of bacteriophage in treatment therapy, conducted research on phages similarly to the Hirszfeld Institute for Immunology and Experimental Therapy of the Polish Academy of Sciences. The Hirszfeld Institute, founded by Ludwik Hirszfeld, is the only one of its kind outside the former Soviet Union that provides patients regular therapeutic phages, usually in the liquid form taken either topically or orally. The institute is responsible for much of the research that has led to the knowledge about phages today, and they even began the use of phage typing, which allows the researchers to identify bacteria based on the lysing from the phages used. The Hirszfeld Institute was able to collect and identify a variety of hundreds of phages that were stored in a phage bank that have the potential to treat disease. The Hirszfeld’s daughter, Marysia, fell ill with anorexia nervosa after her family was forced into the Jewish Warsaw Ghetto, and she died in 1943. After this tragic incident, Hirszfeld did not live long enough to direct his new institute, but Stefan Slopek was able to step up and became Poland’s “father of phage therapy.” Unlike the work done at the Eliava Institute, I believe that the Hirszfeld Institute has made more progress regarding the knowledge and research on the applications for phages, and this is much more significant.

Although the United States was not nearly as advanced in phage therapy as Russia or Poland, it began conducting more phage research. Carl Merril spearheaded this phage research in the US after learning about antibiotic resistant bacteria and wanting to find a way for phages to avoid being destroyed by the liver and spleen before they can be effective. However, the US had a very negative outlook on phages, so Merril’s research encountered many obstacles but eventually found an effective way to breed a phage that would resist being consumed by these organs in order to do its function. By injecting lambda phages that were effective against E. coli into mice and taking blood samples hours later, Merril and his team were able to isolate phages that survived the process. The Argo1 and Argo 2 strains were much more effective and lasted longer than other normal phages. The data in their research show the results of using new phages and their effectiveness, allowing for potential to be used along with antibiotics for future uses for illnesses. (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC39580/?page=3)

I found it very interesting that only one in ten physicians still use phage therapy today, considering how effective and productive it can be to treat illnesses. Since most people aren’t fully educated on this type of treatment, they believe it doesn’t work because it’s benefits have been forgotten. Modern Western medicine could really benefit from the start-up companies that are common in Europe, which provide evidence of the effectiveness of phage therapy. Since the US has many regulations that make it difficult to make new treatments, it makes it harder for people to accept the use of a new treatment, especially if they are uninformed or it has negative connotations. Overall, I think the US could really benefit from the use of phage therapy.