Could viruses help fight super-bugs?
We are slowly running out of ammunition to fight antibiotic resistant bacteria. CrowdScience travels to Georgia in search of solutions.
We are slowly running out of ammunition to fight antibiotic resistant bacteria. Listener Peter wants to know whether a therapy that he’d heard about in the 1980s could be revived to help us where antibiotics falls short.
CrowdScience travels to Georgia where “phages”, viruses that hunt and kill bacteria, have been used for nearly 100 years to treat illnesses ranging from a sore throat to cholera. Phages are fussy eaters – a specific phage will happily chew on one bug but ignore another. In Georgia, scientists have kept rare phages safe for decades and are constantly on the look-out for new ones.
CrowdScience presenter Marnie Chesterton speaks to the scientists and doctors who are pioneering phage-therapy as well as overseas patients who have travelled thousands of miles in hope of finding a cure.
Presenter: Marnie Chesterton
Producer: Louisa Field
(Photo: Bacteriophage infecting bacterium. Credit: Getty Images)
Last on
More episodes
Broadcasts
- Fri 26 Apr 2019 19:32GMT±«Óătv World Service except South Asia
- Sat 27 Apr 2019 23:32GMT±«Óătv World Service
- Mon 29 Apr 2019 04:32GMT±«Óătv World Service Online, UK DAB/Freeview, News Internet & Europe and the Middle East only
- Mon 29 Apr 2019 05:32GMT±«Óătv World Service Australasia, Americas and the Caribbean & South Asia only
- Mon 29 Apr 2019 06:32GMT±«Óătv World Service East and Southern Africa & East Asia only
- Mon 29 Apr 2019 10:32GMT±«Óătv World Service West and Central Africa
- Mon 29 Apr 2019 13:32GMT±«Óătv World Service Australasia
- Mon 29 Apr 2019 17:32GMT±«Óătv World Service South Asia
Podcast
-
![]()
CrowdScience
Answering your questions about life, Earth and the universe
