麻豆社

We are slowly running out of ammunition to fight antibiotic resistant bacteria. Listener Peter wants to know whether a therapy that he鈥檇 heard about in the 1980s could be revived to help us where antibiotics falls short.

CrowdScience travels to Georgia where 鈥減hages鈥�, viruses that hunt and kill bacteria, have been used for nearly 100 years to treat illnesses ranging from a sore throat to cholera. Phages are fussy eaters 鈥� a specific phage will happily chew on one bug but ignore another. In Georgia, scientists have kept rare phages safe for decades and are constantly on the look-out for new ones.

CrowdScience presenter Marnie Chesterton speaks to the scientists and doctors who are pioneering phage-therapy as well as overseas patients who have travelled thousands of miles in hope of finding a cure.

Presenter: Marnie Chesterton
Producer: Louisa Field

(Photo: Bacteriophage infecting bacterium. Credit: Getty Images)