Using 1 germ to fight another when today's antibiotics fail - Statesboro Herald

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Using 1 germ to fight another when today's antibiotics fail

Scientists racing to find novel alternatives to traditional methods

Yale University researcher Benjamin Chan, who studies viruses that attack bacteria, prepares a petri dish with mucus from patient Ella Balasa, of Richmond, Va., at Osborn Memorial Laboratories, in New Haven, Conn., Thursday Jan. 17, 2019. Chan, who travels the world collecting viruses called bacteriophages, receives calls from desperate patients asking to try them. "We're more appreciative of the fact that we need alternatives." - photo by Associated Press

Antibiotic Alternatives 1.jpg — Yale University researcher Benjamin Chan, who studies viruses that attack bacteria, prepares a petri dish with mucus from patient Ella Balasa, of Richmond, Va., at Osborn Memorial Laboratories, in New Haven, Conn., Thursday Jan. 17, 2019. Chan, who travels the world collecting viruses called bacteriophages, receives calls from desperate patients asking to try them. "We're more appreciative of the fact that we need alternatives." - photo by Associated Press

NEW HAVEN, Conn.— Bacteria lodged deep in Ella Balasa's lungs were impervious to most antibiotics. At 26, gasping for breath, she sought out a dramatic experiment — deliberately inhaling a virus culled from sewage to attack her superbug.

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