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CNN's 'Vital Signs' explores the prospects of phage therapy to treat drug-resistant superbugs

December 01, 2023 02:29 PM AEDT | By Cision
 CNN's 'Vital Signs' explores the prospects of phage therapy to treat drug-resistant superbugs
Image source: Kalkine Media

HONG KONG, Dec. 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Antibiotics have been hailed as a "miracle drug" since the discovery of penicillin in 1928, but now, more bacteria are developing resistance to antibiotics. In 2019, the United Nations estimated nearly 5 million deaths were associated with antimicrobial resistance, and that number is expected to double by 2050. On the next episode of 'Vital Signs', CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta speaks to researchers exploring the use of phages, a naturally occurring virus that destroys bacteria, to see if they can be used as an alternative treatment method for antimicrobial resistant infections.

CNN’s ‘Vital Signs’ explores the prospects of phage therapy to treat drug-resistant superbugs
CNN’s ‘Vital Signs’ explores the prospects of phage therapy to treat drug-resistant superbugs

Dr. Gupta joins epidemiologist Steffanie Strathdee on a hunt for phages in some unlikely locations. Strathdee shares how she turned to phages when her husband fell ill after contracting a superbug infection while on a vacation in Egypt. She tells us how her desperate search for an alternative treatment led her and her colleagues to open the Center for Innovative Phage Applications and Therapeutics at the University of California San Diego, where they focus on studying alternative treatments like phage therapy to fight antimicrobial resistant diseases.

The challenge with phage therapy is that there are trillions upon trillions of phages in the world and finding the right one for a specific infection is essentially searching for a needle in a haystack. CNN meets Biologist Graham Hatfull at the University of Pittsburgh who has built a library of 23,000 phages. He explains how this resource could speed up the process of identifying which phages could be used as therapeutics. Hatfull also helped launch the SEA-PHAGES program in 2008 to encourage more students around the world to hunt for their own phages. To date, 45,000 students have taken part in the program.

CNN also speaks to Heather Kilar, who had contracted an antibiotic-resistant form of Mycobacterium Abscessus in her ear which was hindering her quality of life. After taking an extensive antibiotic regiment with little to no improvement, she began searching for alternatives, leading her to phage therapy. With two self-administered doses daily, Kilar's body appears to be reacting to the therapy positively, and she says she has experienced no side effects.

Finally, CNN travels to Thailand to discover how phage researchers are collaborating on a global scale. Vorrapon Chaikeeratisak, Assistant Professor in Biochemistry at Chulalongkorn University in Thailand and his students are on the hunt for phages not just to treat infections but to prevent infection from happening at all. As part of the Thai Fish Project, Chaikeeratisak's lab found two phages to help protect shrimp from infection, thereby protecting one of the country's main food exports. He explains how phages could be a potential alternative to using antibiotics in aquaculture.

Vital Signs trailer: https://bit.ly/3T4pNsZ
Vital Signs images: https://bit.ly/4141YU0
Vital Signs microsite: https://cnn.it/34AHmXX 

Airtimes for 30-minute special:
Sunday, 3rd December at 4:00am HKT
Monday, 4th December at 5:30am HKT
Saturday, 9th December at 4:30pm HKT
Sunday, 10th December at 8:30pm HKT

About CNN International
CNN's portfolio of news and information services is available in seven different languages across all major TV, digital and mobile platforms, reaching more than 475 million households around the globe. CNN International is the number one international TV news channel according to all major media surveys across Europe, the Middle East and Africa, the Asia Pacific region, and Latin America and has a US presence that includes CNNgo. CNN Digital is a leading network for online news, mobile news and social media. CNN is at the forefront of digital innovation and continues to invest heavily in expanding its digital global footprint, with a suite of award-winning digital properties and a range of strategic content partnerships, commercialised through a strong data-driven understanding of audience behaviours. CNN has won multiple prestigious awards around the world for its journalism. Around 1,000 hours of long-form series, documentaries and specials are produced every year by CNNI's non-news programming division. CNN has 36 editorial offices and more than 1,100 affiliates worldwide through CNN Newsource. CNN International is a Warner Bros. Discovery company.

Contact: Tracy Yiu
Email: [email protected]


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