With the exception of treatment options available in a few countries, phages have been largely abandoned as a treatment for bacterial infection. One main reason is because antibiotics have been working well enough over the past 50 years that most countries have not re-initiated a study on the clinical uses of phages.

Why are antibiotics better than phages?

Phage therapy has fewer side effects than antibiotics. On the other hand, most antibiotics have a much wider host range. Some antibiotics can kill a wide range of bacterial species at the same time. The human immune system sometimes recognizes phages as “foreigners” and try to kill them.

Are bacteriophages good or bad?

Bacteriophages are viruses that infect bacteria but are harmless to humans. To reproduce, they get into a bacterium, where they multiply, and finally they break the bacterial cell open to release the new viruses. Therefore, bacteriophages kill bacteria.