The Red... Threat?

So this film on bacteriophages was pretty interesting. I’ve said before that I’m a microbiologist, so I had heard of them before (viruses that infect bacteria exclusively), But I had never heard of them being used therapeutically. Apparently in the Soviet Union they have been using phages to treat bacterial infections since at least the 20’s. Now there is a reason why this type of research is important, we live in a post-resistant age. There are strains of bacteria resistant to every drug we have, and that means they are lethal, about 100% of the time. Things like strep, TB and staph are killing people all over the world and usually it’s nosocomial (acquired in the hospital).

So someone might ask, why would I want a virus injected into me to kill a bacteria? That’s a valid question, with many answers. 1. You’re less likely to have an allergic reaction 2. You would not be injected, it would be administered based on the location of the infection (topically, ingested, rinsed). 3. Drug resistance is not an issue because the bacteria never interact with a drug. If used in combination, the bacteria would never have a chance to gain resistance, and you can cut infection time significantly. 4. Drug interactions are a non issue. So the next question is… Why haven’t I heard of it? Because there’s a little thing called scientific supremacy that the U.S. has created. If you’re research is not published in well known journals, and it is not published in English, it doesn’t exist. Nice. We’re all going to die from bioweapons because someone didn’t want to learn Russian.

That’s the next interesting thought about this film. At one time in the U.S.S.R. there were huge vaults of both bacteria and their phages, collected from all over the world, much like we have at the CDC and the next place, BioPreparat. BioPreparat was Russia’s leading bioweapons facility, that developed and sold various kinds of weapons grade strains of disease. Now, no this was not mentioned in the movie but it’s a logical connection to be made when it does mention that the height of the bacteriophage production was during the height of communism in the U.S.S.R. So I’m thinking its very possible that a large part of this research was done, and not published so that the Soviets could build and/or dispense weapons (during the cold war), while remaining immune. Another reason the U.S. may have never embraced the research was because it was part of the Red threat and there would be no money going toward a Soviet research program.

So now that we live in the age of WMD what does this have to do with anything? Everything. It is believed, but never verified, that the Soviets sold bioweapons to places like North Korea and Iran. We’ve all witnessed the anthrax scare and the looming smallpox threat and although phages won’t help smallpox (it’s a virus), any bacterial infection spread over an area could be treated in mass with bacteriophages. It’s proven to be inexpensive to produce, and has very few side effects. One of the benefits is, is that when they get in the bloodstream our immune system destroys them as foreign particles, and they don’t have a mechanism to infect us, since their hosts are bacteria (very different cell design).

A venture capitalist originally invested in this research and brought it to America, but it has yet to make him money, or pique the interest of any major company like Novartis (they’re great at growing viruses, they make the world’s supply of flu shot right here in Emeryville, CA). So, maybe if more people are informed about this alternative drug, they can begin to request it. Bacteriophages have also been used as disinfectants for surgical equipment, and hospital rooms, so at the very least we could make the suggestion here. If I ever have some rare bacterial infection, or having invasive surgery I think I’ll demand that Kaiser Permanente (or whoever I’ve sold my soul to at the time) order me some phage medicine from Russia. Because at least then, I know that my exuberant health care costs made somebody actually work, and I’m getting a medicine that won’t kill me in the long term.



wiki Bacterophage
Phage Therapy Center, Republic of Georgia