Partnership Hopes To Squash Drug-Resistant Germs

Nasty drug-resistant germs are a thorn in the side of healthcare facilities and their cleaning staffs. Researchers believe they might know a fix that that could dispatch these durable germs which cause deadly infections, reports Phys.org.

Participants in the Phage4Cure project are hoping to destroy multidrug-resistant pathogens in a few different ways. One way would be to dismiss the pathogens with bacteriophages, which themselves are a virus. Researchers also hope bacteriophages could be approved to destroy the bacterias that commonly cause pneumonia.

Participants in the project are giddy about using bacteriophages because these bacterial viruses attack and grow so much within bacteria that they cause them to explode, all the while passing up on attacking bodily cells or other good bacteria.

The process of using bacteriophages to attack other bacteria isn't new; the Soviet Union successfully carried out the act for sometime, according to the report. However, this form of treatment isn't approved in some more modern countries due to a lack of research. But antiobiotic resistance has gotten so bad that researchers are again looking to the process for help.