Original version

BBC World Service Australasia

People Fixing The World

Podcasts

Factual: Health & Wellbeing

Factual: Science & Nature: Nature & Environment

Discover the people and the projects trying to make the world a better place

Discover the people and the projects trying to make the world a better place.

Discover the people and the projects trying to make the world a better place.

A weekly programme looking at common challenges around the world and the creative ways people are trying to tackle them.

Presenter Myra Anubi speaks to reporters, experts and innovators to investigate how effective different solutions are, share their successes and inspire listeners with what is possible.

BBC World Service

BBC World Service Europe and the Middle East

BBC World Service West and Central Africa Schedule

BBC World Service West and Central Africa

BBC World Service schedule for American satellite radio and the Caribbean

BBC World Service Americas and the Caribbean

BBC World Service South Asia

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa Schedule

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa

BBC World Service East Asia

BBC World Service Online

BBC World Service News Internet

People Fixing The World: Can phages save us as antibiotics stop working?

Discussion & Talk

News

Can phages save us as antibiotics stop working?

26/03/2019 GMT

BBC World Service - People Fixing The World, Can phages save us as antibiotics stop working?

How phages – viruses that kill bacteria – are saving lives.

Tens of thousands of people die every year because bacterial infections are becoming resistant to antibiotics. That number is expected to explode, as more antibiotics stop working, making antimicrobial resistance, or AMR, one of the gravest health threats facing humanity. 

But could viruses come to the rescue?  Bacteriophages, or phages for short, are viruses that infect and kill bacteria. They were discovered 100 years ago and have been used to treat infections for decades in Georgia. But despite their abundance in nature and proven ability to kill infections, their potential has not yet been realised outside the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. 

Steffanie Strathdee, who stumbled across phages as she tried to save her husband’s life, is now leading a campaign to put phages on the map. But can their use be scaled up from individual and costly treatments to a fully-operational weapon in the war against AMR?


Reporter: Tom Colls 

(Photo: A phage under an electron microscope. Credit: University of Leicester)

Accessibility links

Programme Index

People Fixing The World

Can phages save us as antibiotics stop working?

Genres

Formats

Brand

BBC World Service Australasia

About BBC World Service