The global rise of multi-drug resistant bacteria has resulted many concerns for this antibiotic resistance is fast approaching. This had led many scientists to review the forgotten cure that was forgotten in the west but not the east. The long clinical history of phage therapy in Eastern Europe, combined with more recent in vitro and in vivo success, shows potential for phage based antibacterial agents. Despite the fact that phage therapy is not yet approved by FDA, phages have already been used to save lives in experimental treatments. A patient who suffered from antibiotic-resistant bacteria was reported in San Diego. Tom Patterson was infected by a multidrug-resistent Acinetobacter baumannii. He was quickly flown back to California and treated with antibiotics, but he near got better. He was saved by a cocktail of phages purified from sewage in Texas. In the near future, as antibiotics lose their effectiveness, we might see more stories like this one. One day, phage might move from our last resort against antibiotic-resistant bacteria to our first line of defense, bringing the “forgotten cure” back to life.

With the multiple lives saved from phage therapy, phage therapy should be tested on humans for other diseases and not AIDS first. I see phage one day becoming a big help to save lives, but not as a first resort, but definitely not last. Once FDA approves phage therapy for a disease on humans, I see more and more experiments run to test these forgotten cures, but only when hard data supports this, phage therapy will just be a “last resort”. Once experimenters have enough data to show that researchers have found a cure for a particular cure, then human trails can start, which will then have to convince the public that “hey this is actually good”. Animal trials would be done first before the start of any human trials. Even with growing antibiotic-resistance, researchers are still producing new antibiotics that work, but only for a short period of time, making the bacteria stronger. Even if phage therapy were to be “the go-to cure”, I see that one day the bacteria to grow an immunity and would research go back to antibiotics? Possibly an endless loop of resistance.

Phages are not used since in the discovery of penicillin in 1928 that shifted modern medicine in the west. To produce phage, scientists have to grow large quantity of bacteria that is the natural host of the phage. Bacteria is then infected with phage, but the problem lies with the isolation of live phages. I would look at other ways of isolating phages and not from multitude of dead bacteria corpses, since this could lead to a deadly immune response. Phage also take a lot of time, time that patients do not have – especially when phages are used as a last resort. Last, other concerns about phage therapy are centered on its safety and efficacy. Since the western world abandoned phage therapy, little data is available. However, institutes like Phage Therapy, Phage Biotics, GangaGen, Exponential Biotherapies continue to provide research on the forgotten cure, and from their studies, phage therapy does not exhibit major safety concerns.