Bacteriophage therapy relies upon viruses of bacteria to treat bacterial infections. Prior to penicillin’s discovery, bacteriophage therapy was one of the major ways to treat bacterial infections. Virologist Felix D’Herelle pioneered this method in the late 1800’s in Paris and the former Soviet Union. Most of the literature on bacteriophage therapy is from Eastern European countries, so the western world hasn’t been exposed to it until recently as an alternative to antibiotics. This might be a great way to dampen the effects of antibiotic resistance, especially with the emergence of particularly resistant strains like MRSA.
