How a long-forgotten virus could help us solve the antibiotics crisis | Alexander Belcredi

Viruses have a bad reputation -- but some of them could one day save your life, says biotech entrepreneur Alexander Belcredi. In this fascinating talk, he introduces us to phages, naturally-occurring viruses that hunt and kill harmful bacteria with deadly precision, and shows how these once-forgotten organisms could provide new hope against the growing threat of antibiotic-resistant superbugs.

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[billiebleach]

A friend of mine got shot in Amsterdam and his leg got infected with a bacteria that was resistant to antibiotics. In the end they wanted to amputate just above the knee. Than his girlfriend, who is Russian, suggested to go to former Soviet Union republic Georgie. He got treated with phages and he kept his leg, he still plays mini-football twice a week. He was away for about six weeks.
When he told the consultant in the hospital in Brussels that he wanted to go get treatment with phages, the doctor said that it was normal for people in his situation to be desperate and try anything...but phages would not help him. That “consultant” was rather surprised to see him two months later with a cured leg.

[michaelsmith]

I heard about phages years ago too and thought it was going to be solution to resistant bacteria, but haven't heard anything since.

[MikeVentris]

In Russia you can simlpy buy bottle with fages (for one bacteria) in any pharmacy. And they are really cheap. But it's still not realy common because you have to find out exactly what kind of bacterial infection do you have before using fages. Wide range antibiotics is more simple way. Hope there will be company in western world that develop this topic and make it more usefull.

[artiomvas]

"Everything new is well forgotten old" fits here perfectly.
Phages were widely used in USSR since 1930s and are still being used in Russia (12 approved active substances), Georgia and some other Eastern European countries. Moreover, they were also used in USA in 1940s (produced by company Eli Lilly).

[dibaldgyfm]

One of the greatest TED speeches, optimistic news about medicine.

[chicksdiggit]

How sad must it be for the individuals who had various body parts amputated as a result of a antibiotic resistant bacteria, only to find out phages could’ve saved the said body part and are openly available in Russia.

[mohamadanas]

I'm a nurse. I want to serve this medication to my patient with multiple antibiotics resistance bacteria. It's sad to see some of my patients stay at hospital for months because of this infection

[JJ-kleq]

So Alex, have you really quit your job and dedicated your life to this new project? Or is it just another phage you’re going through?

[huntonpeck]

I've been hearing about phages and their potential for treating bacterial infections for years. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to have been much progress made in developing phage therapy here in the west.

[vladark]

Phage therapy is very advanced and useful in several countries like Russia, Georgia and Poland. Maybe he tried to belittle availability of this treatment to promote his own company saying that they are only one who does it, but there are many others. And he only heard of it five years ago? Many hospitals were using it for over twenty years.

[funny-video-YouTube-channel]

*Science makes life more interesting !*
The more we understand, the more options we can have to live a fun and easy life.

Phages will save a lot of lives. We can be happy about their help for disinfection.

[lxc]

We need more people to become aware of this kind of treatment. Its been around forever but never found adoption in the western world.

[Mlgtrek]

ted is now becoming an education channel
*the teaching community would like to know where you live*

[easonguoo]

And the best part, as both bacteria and phage evolve, the old phage drug might be obsolete, but the new phage drug will always work. This is good news for patient and drug company.

[RedBloodySky]

We here in Russia have different phages in pharmacies and you can buy them even without prescription. Usually they are packed into 20ml bottles of liquid without any particlar smell or taste. They are usually for different types of bacteria (like one for staphylococcys, other for streptococcus etc). Usually there are mixture of phages for 3-5 bacteria in every phage. And yes, you need to do sensitivity-test (like with antibiotics), because bacteria could be resistant to phages. BUT maybe couple months later there would be no resistance, because phages-industry always develop phages in order to overcome new resistance (unlike antibiotic, which is always the same unless new generation of particular type of antibiotics is developed). You can even make phage specifically for YOUR bacteria, but this is theoretically, I've never heard of this practically because I suppose it could be costly.

[fedorpakhomov]

I am Russian and have once been treated with phages. I have been suffering from soar throat for several month. When I visited a doctor, first the infection and its resistance to antibiotics was identified (it happened to be Pseudomonas aeruginosa with resistance to some antibiotics). My treatment was some antibiotic course followed by phage (to this bacteria). The treatment was successful. But generally the fact that some medicine is used in Russia don't says much about its efficiency. For example, the same treatment included probiotic drug (Linex), but as I learned latter it is fairly dubious whether it is actually helpful.

[pritambanerjee]

First heard about phages way back in 10th standard, but building a pharma-industry, never came into mind! Well done Sir..

[finnjacobsen]

Wow! Did I hear a sigh of relief from the inside of my brain?

[morsianrik]

Hello, I am Morshed from Bangladesh. My mother had urinary tract infection for the last 20 years. And doctors suggested antibiotics. She used but the disease kept occuring in different times of the year. And every doctor used culture to see what antibiotics had been used and what are still left for her to use. We used almost all antibiotics present in the market. And I don't think there's any more than 2 or 3 left to use. I really hope to see these phases being improved. Who knows, maybe we might be able to use it one day on my mother. She keeps battling. This occurs almost every month. Inflammation in kidney and UT and a lot of pain. Something the antibiotics do more damage than the infection. I wish there was a quick solution for this. And I wish we had enough money to solve it, like to go out to a foreign country for treatment 😔.

[MitzvosGolem]

A friend had a wound which would never heal on his abdomen from a burn. He tried honey from New Zealand which healed the wound. I am a skeptic and read this is a successful treatment for many documented on Medline .