WEBVTT - Superbugs' Natural Predator (Rebroadcast)

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<v Speaker 1>Hi, Prognosis listeners, this is your host, Michelle fay Cortes.

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<v Speaker 1>We've spent this month looking back at some of our

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<v Speaker 1>favorite stories from the podcast. For our last rebroadcast, we

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<v Speaker 1>hear how scientists are trying to revive a long forgotten

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<v Speaker 1>technology once popular in the former Soviet Union in a

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<v Speaker 1>desperate effort to combat superbugs, thanks and enjoy. As infections

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<v Speaker 1>become harder to treat because of antibiotic resistance, scientists are

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<v Speaker 1>enlisting help from bacteria's oldest enemy, viruses, so called bacteria

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<v Speaker 1>phases literally bacteria eaters are viruses that target bacteria. While

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<v Speaker 1>researchers have known about them for a century and even

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<v Speaker 1>use them to treat people, these biological agents have been

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<v Speaker 1>largely ignored in most of the world since penicillin became

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<v Speaker 1>available until recently. That is Welcome to Prognosis, a podcast

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<v Speaker 1>about health and science, medical technology, and the changes that

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<v Speaker 1>are underway across the world. I'm your host, Michelle fay Cortes.

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<v Speaker 1>For our third season, we're delving deeply into the human

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<v Speaker 1>cost of bacterial infections that can't be stopped by even

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<v Speaker 1>our most potent antibiotics. The loss of these miracle cures

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<v Speaker 1>has been described as one of the biggest threats to

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<v Speaker 1>global public health. It spurred a search for alternatives to antibiotics.

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<v Speaker 1>In this episode, Bloomberg's Jason Gale explores how that effort

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<v Speaker 1>is leading scientists back to a Soviet era inspired treatment

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<v Speaker 1>known as phage therapy, that saving the lives of patients

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<v Speaker 1>who couldn't be cured with antibiotics alone. He also examines

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<v Speaker 1>the discoveries being made in some of England's smelliest soils

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<v Speaker 1>that promised to protect us against two made your sources

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<v Speaker 1>of deadly disease. Here's Jason. This is Joe Grimwood. He's

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<v Speaker 1>a retired chiropractor who lives at the end of a

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<v Speaker 1>debt road in the hills outside of Reno, Nevada, with Jasmine,

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<v Speaker 1>his fifty pound bulldog pit bull Terry Across and more

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<v Speaker 1>recently an orange second hand tractor. And it's got a

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<v Speaker 1>loader bucket on the front and a scraper on the back.

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<v Speaker 1>It's what they call a midside so it's thirty five horsepower,

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<v Speaker 1>three cylinder diesel. It's four wheel drive. It can lift

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<v Speaker 1>about eighteen hundred pounds. Joel has big plans for it.

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<v Speaker 1>What I want to do is put a garden in

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<v Speaker 1>over here, and it's you know, at least a core

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<v Speaker 1>or acre. Joel is sixty six. He wasn't always this active.

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<v Speaker 1>In fact, a year and a half ago he was

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<v Speaker 1>gravely ill. I practice chiropractic for over twenty years on

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<v Speaker 1>the north Shore like Tahoe. In two thousand and seven,

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<v Speaker 1>I had a cardiac arrest and that ended that. Joel

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<v Speaker 1>had a diseased heart muscle that put him in cardiac failure.

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<v Speaker 1>Five years ago, he became so ill that he needed

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<v Speaker 1>a heart transplant to buy him some time. While he

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<v Speaker 1>waited for a donut organ, his doctors implanted a mechanical

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<v Speaker 1>pump known as a left ventricular assist device, which is

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<v Speaker 1>a pump that takes over for your left ventricle and

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<v Speaker 1>pumps blood from your left ventricle to your order. The

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<v Speaker 1>device fitted in Joel's chest was powered by an electrical

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<v Speaker 1>cord that exited his abdomen, and this cord it was

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<v Speaker 1>a direct connection between the inside of his heart and

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<v Speaker 1>the outside world. Despite his best efforts to keep it clean,

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<v Speaker 1>bacteria started growing inside the pump. Within a year, Joel

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<v Speaker 1>was battling a potentially deadly infection was in all the

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<v Speaker 1>hospital for three years. I was on ivy antibiotics most

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<v Speaker 1>of that time, and they just never could quite knock

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<v Speaker 1>it out. Surgeons would scrape away dead tissue, vacuum up

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<v Speaker 1>bacteria laid in material, and sterilize and dress an open

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<v Speaker 1>wound that gradually grew to the size of a key line.

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<v Speaker 1>In Joel's case, antibiotics were subduing the gems in his bloodstream,

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<v Speaker 1>but we're powerless against their mushrooming source, the slime forming

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<v Speaker 1>bacteria growing on his implant. Scientists called the slime bio film.

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<v Speaker 1>As a survival strategy, bacteria builds structured communities on surfaces,

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<v Speaker 1>including on artificial hips and knees, pacemakers, and catheters, even

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<v Speaker 1>on airways of cystic fibrosis patients. This gunk is a

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<v Speaker 1>fortress light barrier that protects bacteria from antibiotics and the

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<v Speaker 1>immune system. The propensity for bacteria to develop bio films

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<v Speaker 1>and prosthetic implants is a major threat to modern medicine.

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<v Speaker 1>For instance, more than a million knee and hip replacement

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<v Speaker 1>operations performed annually in the United States alone, and the

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<v Speaker 1>joint infections that result cost more than one billion dollars

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<v Speaker 1>in hospital bills. You know, I was in trouble and

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<v Speaker 1>I was going to die. I was getting that feeling,

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<v Speaker 1>but I never lost the whope, the faith of belief

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<v Speaker 1>that I had survived this. I don't think there was

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<v Speaker 1>much point in thinking any other way. I had to

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<v Speaker 1>stay positive. Joel sent me pictures of what his chest

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<v Speaker 1>looked like without the dressings. His gaping chest wound is

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<v Speaker 1>about six inches long and the color of uncooked steak.

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<v Speaker 1>I'm not especially squeamish, but being able to see directly

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<v Speaker 1>into his body and identify the mushroom shaped base of

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<v Speaker 1>the pump, well, it made me feel nauseous. Joel desperately

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<v Speaker 1>needed a new heart, but the bacterial slide growing on

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<v Speaker 1>his heart pump made a transplant too dangerous. Four hospitals

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<v Speaker 1>refused to put him on the waitlist because of the

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<v Speaker 1>infection risk. Removing the device would dislodge a lethal maelstrom

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<v Speaker 1>of staff Loococcus aureus bacteria. If Joel was going to survive,

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<v Speaker 1>he needed to get rid of the bacteria, and that

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<v Speaker 1>was impossible with antibiotics alone. And the last I'd say

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<v Speaker 1>six months or so, I really got a sense of

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<v Speaker 1>urgency because it just wasn't going away. Hope was dwindling,

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<v Speaker 1>that is until the fifth hospital offered John something Else,

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<v Speaker 1>a type of experimental treatment that had been courageously attempted

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<v Speaker 1>there a couple of years earlier. It was subsequently tried

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<v Speaker 1>with overall positive results in half a dozen patients in

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<v Speaker 1>much of two thousand and six, California academic Tom Patterson

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<v Speaker 1>became the hospital's first recipient. He got severely ill with

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<v Speaker 1>an incurable bacterial infection. He was close to dying in

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<v Speaker 1>the hospital attached to the University of California, San Diego

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<v Speaker 1>when his wife came up with one last option, an

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<v Speaker 1>approach that flourished in the former Soviet Union under stalinism

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<v Speaker 1>but hadn't been used in the US for generations, and

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<v Speaker 1>that speech therapy. This is Stephanie Strafty, an infectious disease

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<v Speaker 1>epidemiologist and the Associate Dean of Global Health Sciences at

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<v Speaker 1>UC San Diego, where I also co direct a new

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<v Speaker 1>feage therapy center called iPath. The treatment involves using specially

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<v Speaker 1>selected and prepared viruses to attack disease causing bacteria. Professor

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<v Speaker 1>Stratti took that unconventional approach to save her husband Tom

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<v Speaker 1>and its success led to Joe Grimwood and other patients

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<v Speaker 1>getting it. In Tom Patterson's case, it was a last

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<v Speaker 1>ditch attempt to keep him alive. He had already had

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<v Speaker 1>in seven cases of septic shark and so it was

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<v Speaker 1>either watch him die or do something drastic on my own,

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<v Speaker 1>and I decided to try to save his life. Professor

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<v Speaker 1>Strafti didn't send out to become an expert in phage therapy.

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<v Speaker 1>In fact, she devoted decades focusing on the HIV epidemic

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<v Speaker 1>that got derailed somewhat. In two thousand and sixteen, my

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<v Speaker 1>husband and I were on vacation in Egypt and he

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<v Speaker 1>acquired what looked like to be a stomach bug, but

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<v Speaker 1>he got violently ill. He was eventually met a back

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<v Speaker 1>to Germany and then back home to u C. San Diego,

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<v Speaker 1>where our doctor friends were caring for him, and it

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<v Speaker 1>turned out that he had a gallstone that caused a

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<v Speaker 1>giant absence in his abdomen, and inside that abscess lurked

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<v Speaker 1>a superbug. The infection was caused by a bacterium called

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<v Speaker 1>a senator. Back to beaumani I, it possessed so many

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<v Speaker 1>drug resistance genes that it was untreatable. Professor Strati says

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<v Speaker 1>she stopped counting the number of antibodics husband was given.

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<v Speaker 1>His infection was resistant to fifteen antibiotics right off the bat,

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<v Speaker 1>and it was only partially sensitive to three, and in

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<v Speaker 1>the few weeks that it took to um get him

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<v Speaker 1>back home to San Diego, it acquired resistance to those

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<v Speaker 1>last three antibiotics, including calliston and mirror pennum, and those

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<v Speaker 1>are considered last resort antibiotics. The bacterium is nicknamed Roqua

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<v Speaker 1>BacT because of the veterans you have returned from the

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<v Speaker 1>Middle East with the infection. This is an organism. I

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<v Speaker 1>used to play it on my petri dishes back in

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<v Speaker 1>the nineteen eighties at the University of Toronto, and it

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<v Speaker 1>was considered a pretty wimpy organism back then. But it's

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<v Speaker 1>acquired superpowers at the bacterial level because it's almost like

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<v Speaker 1>a kleptomaniac. It steals antibiotic resistance genes from other bacteria,

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<v Speaker 1>and when we're throwing antibiotics at an infection, this one

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<v Speaker 1>is resistant and it's just rubbing its hands together saying, okay,

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<v Speaker 1>you got rid of my competition. Now I can move

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<v Speaker 1>in for the kill and a head Professor Strattis husband

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<v Speaker 1>Tom firmal in its clutches. He was possibly hours away

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<v Speaker 1>from death. His doctors had given us the talk. They said, basically,

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<v Speaker 1>there's nothing else that we can do. This organism is

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<v Speaker 1>resistant to all antibiotics. Desperate, Professors Strafe clung to something

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<v Speaker 1>she recalled from her undergrad days back in Canada. Well,

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<v Speaker 1>I have a very old degree in microbiology from the

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<v Speaker 1>nineteen eighties, and I had learned in my classes that

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<v Speaker 1>pages are viruses that have naturally evolved to attack bacteria,

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<v Speaker 1>and you can see how they work in a petri dish,

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<v Speaker 1>even though you can't visualize them with your naked eye

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<v Speaker 1>or even with a light microscope. But what I didn't

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<v Speaker 1>know is that pages had been used over a hundred

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<v Speaker 1>years ago to treat people with bacterial infections quite successfully.

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<v Speaker 1>For a time, Professor Strafti worked with scientists in Texas

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<v Speaker 1>and the US military to acquire cocktails of pages that

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<v Speaker 1>matched the bacteria poisoning her husband. Meantime, she aked with

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<v Speaker 1>his doctors and the Food and Drug Administration to gain

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<v Speaker 1>approval to use them on compassionate grounds. The first batch

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<v Speaker 1>arrived from Texas, a and m University, and we inserted

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<v Speaker 1>those into the tubes or catheters in his abdomen because

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<v Speaker 1>that was closest to his infection, and we just hoped

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<v Speaker 1>that nothing would happen, because you know, we were worried

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<v Speaker 1>that he could die of septic shock because essentially we

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<v Speaker 1>were injecting a billion viruses into his body, and he

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<v Speaker 1>remained stable. So two days later we had phages arrived

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<v Speaker 1>from the Navy, and those pages were considered to be

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<v Speaker 1>more virulent. We injected those pages into his body, a

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<v Speaker 1>billion pages per dose, and that was when he really

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<v Speaker 1>started turning around. While it's impossible to prove that it

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<v Speaker 1>was phage therapy that saved Tom's life, what happened next

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<v Speaker 1>was dramatic. A couple of days after we began intervene

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<v Speaker 1>his phage therapy, he lifted his head off the pillow

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<v Speaker 1>and kissed his daughter's hand, and everybody in the icy

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<v Speaker 1>freaked out, including myself. Doctors observed something very cool in

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<v Speaker 1>Tom's case. The bacteria had to make a genetic decision.

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<v Speaker 1>It could either face the phage or it could face

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<v Speaker 1>the antibiotic, and it decided to face the antibiotics, so

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<v Speaker 1>it actually modified itself to become susceptible to antibiotics again.

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<v Speaker 1>This synergy between phages and antibiotics has occurred in other patients.

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<v Speaker 1>After phage therapy, their superbug was no longer immune to antibiotics,

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<v Speaker 1>and it's opened up a way of resurrecting failing antibiotic regimens.

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<v Speaker 1>If we can take advantage of the fact that pages

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<v Speaker 1>can put selective pressure on bacteria to make them susceptible

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<v Speaker 1>to some antibiotics again, then that would be a really

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<v Speaker 1>important advance. Even if it saves just a couple, that

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<v Speaker 1>could be a very important turning point in this whole

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<v Speaker 1>global crisis that we're facing. In the case of Joel Grimwood,

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<v Speaker 1>whose chest was being slowly consumed by bacterial slime, Pages

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<v Speaker 1>are credited with doing something else as equally cool. After

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<v Speaker 1>a four week course of intravenous phage therapy in combination

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<v Speaker 1>with antibiotics, swabs of his open wounds came back negative.

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<v Speaker 1>For Staff, it was like a eight the bacteria and

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<v Speaker 1>then when all the bacteria was gone, it just went away.

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<v Speaker 1>It just died. But once I started taking the phage,

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<v Speaker 1>there was a marked improvement in my energy level and

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<v Speaker 1>how I felt. I'd say within a week I started

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<v Speaker 1>to notice differences. Importantly, after four years, some forty surgeries

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<v Speaker 1>and a multitude of medical treatments, he was finally eligible

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<v Speaker 1>for heart transplant surgery. Doctors chalked up his surprising turnaround

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<v Speaker 1>to phage therapy. They qualified me for the transplant, and

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<v Speaker 1>in two weeks I got a heart. Joel Grimwood and

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<v Speaker 1>Tom Patterson epitomized the dramatic results that have revived interest

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<v Speaker 1>in phage therapy. It's a counter untreatable infections, but the

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<v Speaker 1>basic research required to find and developed phage based products

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<v Speaker 1>that's often frustrating and well sometimes downright gross work. It

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<v Speaker 1>involves getting up close and personal with some large sources

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<v Speaker 1>of bacteria. What we can see here are some really healthy,

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<v Speaker 1>lovely picks. I think there. I think they've lost our

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<v Speaker 1>old spots. This one's on there with the spots pot.

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<v Speaker 1>That's Martha Clerky. She's a micro biologist who runs a

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<v Speaker 1>research lab and teaches at the University of Leicester, roughly

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<v Speaker 1>a hundred miles north of London. She's responsible for some

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<v Speaker 1>key phage findings that promised to not only improve food

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<v Speaker 1>safe but arrest a major killer of hospital patients. On

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<v Speaker 1>an overcast summer's day, Professor Cloakey is at a farm

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<v Speaker 1>in East Lake, wearing a dark blue cotton dress and

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<v Speaker 1>looking at a pig pen with about a half a

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<v Speaker 1>dozen animals in it. The swine are huge. One bore

0:15:19.680 --> 0:15:24.120
<v Speaker 1>probably weighs close to five hundred pounds. But Professor Cloakey

0:15:24.520 --> 0:15:28.280
<v Speaker 1>isn't here to just visit a farm. She's hunting pages.

0:15:29.000 --> 0:15:32.200
<v Speaker 1>It's not what's in the pigs that interests her, it's

0:15:32.240 --> 0:15:37.200
<v Speaker 1>what's beneath them. It's a microbial treasure trove comprising soil

0:15:37.240 --> 0:15:41.960
<v Speaker 1>and pig excrement. We get virus like fluo eight bacteria

0:15:42.000 --> 0:15:44.840
<v Speaker 1>of their own viruses known as pages. So that's what

0:15:44.880 --> 0:15:46.880
<v Speaker 1>all our works about, is trying to find these very

0:15:46.920 --> 0:15:51.320
<v Speaker 1>specific bacterial viruses that we can then used to treat

0:15:51.560 --> 0:15:54.680
<v Speaker 1>diseases and animals and humans. A quarter of a teaspoon

0:15:54.720 --> 0:15:57.560
<v Speaker 1>of this smelly stuff will harbor tens of billions of

0:15:57.560 --> 0:16:02.000
<v Speaker 1>bacteria and hundreds of billions of pages, which is why

0:16:02.080 --> 0:16:06.000
<v Speaker 1>farm soils are fertile ground for Professor cloak So it's

0:16:06.040 --> 0:16:10.880
<v Speaker 1>a wonderful, natural, lovely microbial soup, all bacteria feeding on

0:16:10.920 --> 0:16:15.920
<v Speaker 1>the on the soil, playing all different roles, living off

0:16:15.920 --> 0:16:18.320
<v Speaker 1>the nutrients, some of which are provided by the animals,

0:16:18.560 --> 0:16:22.160
<v Speaker 1>which is why we often find viruses at target different

0:16:22.320 --> 0:16:27.040
<v Speaker 1>bacteria the animals curry. So in order to find good pages,

0:16:27.080 --> 0:16:29.680
<v Speaker 1>we start off with a source of healthy animals and

0:16:29.840 --> 0:16:33.080
<v Speaker 1>we search through the soils and feces associated with them,

0:16:33.120 --> 0:16:36.760
<v Speaker 1>such as this sample here. It's immaterial like this that

0:16:36.960 --> 0:16:40.400
<v Speaker 1>Professor Cloak and colleagues made an important discovery back in

0:16:40.440 --> 0:16:43.680
<v Speaker 1>the lab, a jumbo phage that can be added to

0:16:43.800 --> 0:16:48.760
<v Speaker 1>pig feed to selectively weed out salmonilla from animals digestive tracks.

0:16:49.560 --> 0:16:52.520
<v Speaker 1>The hope is that removing salmonella from its source in

0:16:52.640 --> 0:16:56.960
<v Speaker 1>animals will safeguard food, and doing so will avoid the

0:16:57.120 --> 0:17:01.440
<v Speaker 1>huge waste associated with dumping food in response to contamination

0:17:01.480 --> 0:17:04.639
<v Speaker 1>and product recalls, and all of that will reduce the

0:17:04.800 --> 0:17:08.800
<v Speaker 1>use of antibiotics, both in animals and people, which fosters

0:17:08.840 --> 0:17:11.680
<v Speaker 1>Drug resistance features are an obvious thing where that you

0:17:11.720 --> 0:17:15.240
<v Speaker 1>could potentially use to manipulate the microbiome of an animal

0:17:15.560 --> 0:17:22.080
<v Speaker 1>to remove pathogens or to promote a more healthy gut microbiome.

0:17:22.359 --> 0:17:25.400
<v Speaker 1>In a similar way, Professor Clokey is hoping to read

0:17:25.520 --> 0:17:31.159
<v Speaker 1>hospital patients of a major bacterial killer Clostridioides difficil, or

0:17:31.240 --> 0:17:35.760
<v Speaker 1>seed IF, causes almost half a million diarrheal illnesses and

0:17:35.880 --> 0:17:40.560
<v Speaker 1>about fifteen thousand deaths annually in the United States alone.

0:17:41.200 --> 0:17:46.240
<v Speaker 1>Older hospital patients are its prime victims. The miserable life

0:17:46.240 --> 0:17:50.560
<v Speaker 1>derailing diarrheal disease that seed IF causes usually comes on

0:17:50.800 --> 0:17:54.600
<v Speaker 1>after a friendly intestinal bacteria have been annihilated by a

0:17:54.680 --> 0:17:59.159
<v Speaker 1>course of antibiotics. Among people over sixty five diagnosed with

0:17:59.200 --> 0:18:03.520
<v Speaker 1>a healthcare associated see differ infection, one in eleven is

0:18:03.600 --> 0:18:07.560
<v Speaker 1>dead within a month. The germ is also really hard

0:18:07.600 --> 0:18:10.159
<v Speaker 1>to eliminate. Once you've had it, there's a one in

0:18:10.240 --> 0:18:13.800
<v Speaker 1>five chance of it coming back. It took Professor Cloaky

0:18:13.800 --> 0:18:17.240
<v Speaker 1>in her team three years, tests on hundreds of stool

0:18:17.280 --> 0:18:21.920
<v Speaker 1>specimens and countless hours of digging up smelly black esterone

0:18:21.960 --> 0:18:25.800
<v Speaker 1>soils to finally find one. It was a major breakthrough

0:18:25.840 --> 0:18:29.680
<v Speaker 1>to discover what appear under an electron microscope a little

0:18:29.720 --> 0:18:33.159
<v Speaker 1>bit like alien creatures. They look a little bit like

0:18:33.320 --> 0:18:37.560
<v Speaker 1>um somehow, like they come from another world. They have

0:18:37.640 --> 0:18:41.800
<v Speaker 1>these elegant snurgrical heads and them long sort of flowing

0:18:41.880 --> 0:18:44.199
<v Speaker 1>tail fibers. They're just they look a little bit like

0:18:44.240 --> 0:18:49.879
<v Speaker 1>a a sort of rather unusual insect, but with killer instincts.

0:18:50.680 --> 0:18:54.000
<v Speaker 1>Those long tail fibers will help the phage find and

0:18:54.160 --> 0:18:58.320
<v Speaker 1>snare its prey. Once the bacteria is in its grips,

0:18:58.880 --> 0:19:01.800
<v Speaker 1>the page will inject it's DNA into the cell, and

0:19:01.800 --> 0:19:04.800
<v Speaker 1>at that point the bacteria is no longer bacteria anymore.

0:19:04.840 --> 0:19:07.480
<v Speaker 1>It's just a we call a viral factory. It's just

0:19:07.560 --> 0:19:11.720
<v Speaker 1>making viral particles. After about half an hour will be

0:19:11.760 --> 0:19:15.960
<v Speaker 1>about maybe fifty full fully formed viral particles in that cell.

0:19:16.359 --> 0:19:20.000
<v Speaker 1>They then release different enzymes which then break down that

0:19:20.000 --> 0:19:22.159
<v Speaker 1>cell in the cell, or which bust open, and the

0:19:22.160 --> 0:19:25.200
<v Speaker 1>phages will be released. Those new pages will find new

0:19:25.240 --> 0:19:27.960
<v Speaker 1>cells on the whole process will repeat itself over again.

0:19:28.400 --> 0:19:32.479
<v Speaker 1>It's like a biodegradable smart bomb, capable of eliminating a

0:19:32.560 --> 0:19:37.840
<v Speaker 1>single bacterial target without affecting other beneficial bacteria. So, at

0:19:37.880 --> 0:19:39.959
<v Speaker 1>least in theory, if you can get a few pages

0:19:40.000 --> 0:19:42.720
<v Speaker 1>to the site of infection, you then have an institution

0:19:42.960 --> 0:19:45.919
<v Speaker 1>replication of that medicine to be able to wipe out

0:19:45.960 --> 0:19:48.040
<v Speaker 1>the infection where it's needed. You can see it's very

0:19:48.040 --> 0:19:52.640
<v Speaker 1>different to your sort of standard one compound antibiotic lab

0:19:52.680 --> 0:19:56.800
<v Speaker 1>experiments with animals that mimic the disease, indicate the Professor cloaks,

0:19:56.840 --> 0:20:00.800
<v Speaker 1>phages are adept at killing the mains rains of seed

0:20:00.840 --> 0:20:05.399
<v Speaker 1>if the patients typically contract. They can also inhibit the

0:20:05.400 --> 0:20:09.720
<v Speaker 1>bacteria when pages are administered days before animals are exposed

0:20:09.760 --> 0:20:12.920
<v Speaker 1>to see diff which suggests they could potentially be given

0:20:12.960 --> 0:20:17.280
<v Speaker 1>to vulnerable patients to prevent the disease. Professor Clerk is

0:20:17.320 --> 0:20:20.919
<v Speaker 1>gathering the basic data needed to demonstrate the safety and

0:20:20.960 --> 0:20:24.960
<v Speaker 1>efficacy of her pages. She says a prototype product could

0:20:24.960 --> 0:20:28.720
<v Speaker 1>be ready in about five years. Meantime, researchers in other

0:20:28.800 --> 0:20:33.280
<v Speaker 1>countries are forging ahead with patient studies aimed at identifying

0:20:33.359 --> 0:20:38.880
<v Speaker 1>if and how phages could become part of routine medical care. Ironically,

0:20:39.359 --> 0:20:43.920
<v Speaker 1>in some countries they established that niche early last century

0:20:44.000 --> 0:20:47.560
<v Speaker 1>of us is did look up. One of the earliest

0:20:47.600 --> 0:20:51.560
<v Speaker 1>phage therapy centers is Intability and the former Soviet Republic

0:20:51.600 --> 0:20:55.520
<v Speaker 1>of Georgia, known as the Eliava Institute. It was the

0:20:55.640 --> 0:21:00.000
<v Speaker 1>hub for Soviet phage therapy research and production and accumulate

0:21:00.040 --> 0:21:04.120
<v Speaker 1>did the world's largest phage library. It's supplied the Red

0:21:04.280 --> 0:21:08.159
<v Speaker 1>Army with thousands of treatments to prevent and treat dysentery

0:21:08.200 --> 0:21:11.760
<v Speaker 1>and wound infections during World War Two, though its products

0:21:11.800 --> 0:21:16.040
<v Speaker 1>weren't subjected to the klins of randomized controlled trials usually

0:21:16.080 --> 0:21:20.520
<v Speaker 1>needed for regulatory approval. He's definitely stratti Again. They were

0:21:20.640 --> 0:21:23.480
<v Speaker 1>taken up very vigorously in the former Soviet Union and

0:21:23.520 --> 0:21:26.520
<v Speaker 1>in parts of Eastern Europe, where they are used to

0:21:26.560 --> 0:21:30.600
<v Speaker 1>this day over the counter. Even penicillin wasn't so readily

0:21:30.640 --> 0:21:34.560
<v Speaker 1>available there compared within the West, where antibiotics were considered

0:21:34.560 --> 0:21:38.680
<v Speaker 1>easier to administer and store. There was also the association

0:21:38.760 --> 0:21:42.440
<v Speaker 1>with communism during the Cold War that deterred phage research.

0:21:42.840 --> 0:21:45.640
<v Speaker 1>If you were into pege therapy, were lable to pink

0:21:45.680 --> 0:21:49.800
<v Speaker 1>o kami. So this geopolitical bias was a major factor

0:21:49.880 --> 0:21:53.600
<v Speaker 1>that really delayed the advances in pege therapy that we're

0:21:53.680 --> 0:21:57.520
<v Speaker 1>starting to recoup now. I was surprised to find out

0:21:57.600 --> 0:22:00.760
<v Speaker 1>that the US military was working on fair age, but

0:22:00.920 --> 0:22:04.760
<v Speaker 1>it turns out that many different militaries, including the Belgian military,

0:22:04.800 --> 0:22:07.600
<v Speaker 1>have been working on phage for quite some time. Professor

0:22:07.640 --> 0:22:11.400
<v Speaker 1>straphanis efforts to save a husband have already drawn attention

0:22:11.440 --> 0:22:16.120
<v Speaker 1>to a largely neglected and somewhat mistrusted approach to treating infections.

0:22:16.680 --> 0:22:20.000
<v Speaker 1>In February of two thousand and nineteen, the couple released

0:22:20.000 --> 0:22:23.639
<v Speaker 1>a book about their ordeal. It's called The Perfect Predator,

0:22:24.080 --> 0:22:27.320
<v Speaker 1>A scientist race to save a husband from a deadly superbug.

0:22:27.880 --> 0:22:30.680
<v Speaker 1>They recently sold the movie rights to a big Hollywood name.

0:22:31.080 --> 0:22:33.720
<v Speaker 1>My husband's case was kind of considered to be a

0:22:33.720 --> 0:22:36.560
<v Speaker 1>watershed moment in the strange history of phage therapy. He

0:22:36.680 --> 0:22:39.680
<v Speaker 1>certainly wasn't the first person to be treated with phage therapy,

0:22:39.720 --> 0:22:41.800
<v Speaker 1>but in the United States, he was the first person

0:22:41.880 --> 0:22:45.600
<v Speaker 1>to receive intravenous phage therapy to treat a systemic superbug

0:22:45.640 --> 0:22:49.479
<v Speaker 1>infection that was essentially pan resistant. And that knowledge that

0:22:49.600 --> 0:22:54.080
<v Speaker 1>intravenous phage therapy is safe and those phages, even though

0:22:54.119 --> 0:22:56.240
<v Speaker 1>we don't really know how they get where they need

0:22:56.280 --> 0:23:00.800
<v Speaker 1>to go, they know, and so um, it's allowing many

0:23:00.840 --> 0:23:03.399
<v Speaker 1>other cases to be treated. In fact, we estimate for

0:23:03.840 --> 0:23:08.840
<v Speaker 1>fifty people have been treated since Tom's case. For Joel Grimwood,

0:23:09.000 --> 0:23:12.400
<v Speaker 1>Pages arrived just in the nick of time, a year

0:23:12.400 --> 0:23:15.399
<v Speaker 1>and a half after his Page treatment that preceded his

0:23:15.520 --> 0:23:18.800
<v Speaker 1>heart transplant. He says he feels like a different man.

0:23:19.520 --> 0:23:21.840
<v Speaker 1>He has plans now for things he wouldn't have been

0:23:21.880 --> 0:23:24.880
<v Speaker 1>able to do two years ago, while fighting off infections

0:23:25.240 --> 0:23:28.280
<v Speaker 1>and waiting for a surgery that never seemed was coming.

0:23:28.920 --> 0:23:31.119
<v Speaker 1>I'm becoming more active. They told me I can go

0:23:31.240 --> 0:23:34.760
<v Speaker 1>swimming now, so that'll be fun. I'm not going to

0:23:34.840 --> 0:23:38.600
<v Speaker 1>be uh going bar chested on the beach. I'll tell

0:23:38.600 --> 0:23:41.960
<v Speaker 1>you that. How gonna have to have so a T

0:23:42.080 --> 0:23:44.520
<v Speaker 1>shirt art or something. It's it looks like I got

0:23:44.520 --> 0:23:51.680
<v Speaker 1>blown up. Ironically, he's probably alive today because of explosions,

0:23:52.040 --> 0:23:55.200
<v Speaker 1>the microscopic one's going on inside his body thanks to

0:23:55.240 --> 0:23:58.440
<v Speaker 1>fage therapy. You know, I'd saved my life. I guess

0:23:58.440 --> 0:24:02.040
<v Speaker 1>it is a miracle. You away, and I feel that way.

0:24:02.040 --> 0:24:04.000
<v Speaker 1>I tell my friends all the time. You know, I'm

0:24:04.040 --> 0:24:13.160
<v Speaker 1>just watching the miracle unfold. All the cases of Joel

0:24:13.200 --> 0:24:16.480
<v Speaker 1>Grimwood and Tom Patterson point to the promise of page

0:24:16.520 --> 0:24:22.000
<v Speaker 1>therapy to find untreatable infections. They don't constitute scientific evidence

0:24:22.200 --> 0:24:26.320
<v Speaker 1>that they work. The challenges to apply all the acquired

0:24:26.359 --> 0:24:30.680
<v Speaker 1>knowledge gathered over the past century to run coordinated, rigorous

0:24:30.720 --> 0:24:34.520
<v Speaker 1>trials to prove what, if any role phages can play

0:24:34.800 --> 0:24:39.480
<v Speaker 1>in mitigating the anti microbial resistance crisis. The clock is ticking.

0:24:40.080 --> 0:24:44.120
<v Speaker 1>It's predicted that unless something drastic happens, one person will

0:24:44.200 --> 0:24:49.359
<v Speaker 1>die every three seconds from a superbug infection. By the

0:24:49.440 --> 0:24:52.280
<v Speaker 1>world can't afford to wait more years to find out

0:24:52.440 --> 0:25:14.560
<v Speaker 1>where the phages can help. And that's it for this

0:25:14.600 --> 0:25:18.760
<v Speaker 1>week's prognosis. Thanks for listening. Do you have a story

0:25:18.760 --> 0:25:21.879
<v Speaker 1>about healthcare in the US or around the world we

0:25:21.920 --> 0:25:24.560
<v Speaker 1>want to hear from you. Find me on Twitter at

0:25:24.560 --> 0:25:27.840
<v Speaker 1>the Cortes or send me an email m Cortes at

0:25:27.880 --> 0:25:31.080
<v Speaker 1>Bloomberg dot net. If you were a fan of this episode,

0:25:31.359 --> 0:25:33.840
<v Speaker 1>please take a moment to rate and review us. It

0:25:33.960 --> 0:25:37.280
<v Speaker 1>really helps new listeners find the show, and don't forget

0:25:37.320 --> 0:25:41.719
<v Speaker 1>to subscribe. This episode was produced by Ethan Brooks. Our

0:25:41.760 --> 0:25:45.360
<v Speaker 1>story editor was Rick Shine. Special thanks to John Lawerman,

0:25:45.640 --> 0:25:49.159
<v Speaker 1>who helped with the reporting, and Drew Armstrong, our healthcare

0:25:49.200 --> 0:25:53.479
<v Speaker 1>team leader. Francesco Leavia's head of Bloomberg Podcasts. We'll be

0:25:53.520 --> 0:25:55.920
<v Speaker 1>back next week with the new episode. See you then,