Bedside Rounds

Bacteriophages -- viruses that target and kill bacteria -- were one of the most promising medical treatments of the early 20th century, and were used to treat all sorts of infections, from cholera to staph, and everything in between. But by the 1950s, they had all but died out in the West. This episode tells the story of the humble phage, from its discovery in the waters of the Ganges, love trysts ending in a KGB execution, and to a resurgence of this once forgotten therapy in the 21st century as an answer to antibiotic resistance. Sources:   Abedon ST, Bacteriophage prehistory: Is or is not Hankin, 1896, a phage reference? Bacteriophage. 2011 May-Jun; 1(3): 174–178. Blair JE and Williams REO, “Phage Typing of Staphylococci,” Bull Org mond. Ste, 1961, 24, 771-784. Davis BM and Waldor MK, Filamentous phages linked to virulence of Vibrio cholera, Current Opinion in Microbiology 2003, 6:35-42. d’Herelle F, “Bacteriophage as a treatment in acute medical and surgical infections,” Bull N Y Acad Med. 1931 May; 7(5)