For nearly 70 years, this approach, known as phage therapy, has been a standard treatment for bacterial infections in the former Soviet Union. In the West, phage therapy was dismissed as a failure decades ago. Now scientists in Europe and North America are turning once again to the tiny predators. Prolific Killers Around the world, patients are dying from bacteria that were once easily tamed with antibiotics. So scientists are scrambling for new treatments.
Phages look promising for a number of reasons, starting with their prolific reproduction.
With conventional antibiotics, the concentration in the blood peaks after each dose and then dwindles. It's the only drug that makes more of itself. Also, each kind of phage usually attacks only one species of bacterium. This pickiness also explains why the phages within your body don't automatically kill off invading bacteria before you get sick. With so many kinds of phages around, you probably don't have the right kind to fight that particular bug.