The emergence of antibiotic resistance among pathogenic bacteria is one of
the most critical problems of modern medicine, and novel, effective approac
hes for treating infections caused by multidrug-resistant bacteria are urge
ntly required. In this context, one intriguing approach is to use bacteriop
hages (viruses that kill bacteria) to eliminate specific bacterial pathogen
s. Bacteriophage therapy was widely used around the world in the 1930s and
1940s, and it is still used in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.
However, phage therapy was all but abandoned in the West after antibiotics
became widely available. Promising results from recent animal studies using
phages to treat bacterial infections, together with the urgent need for no
vel and effective antimicrobials, should prompt additional rigorous studies
to determine the value of this therapeutic approach.