Forgotten Phage Therapy is Curing People of Superbug Infections

Scientist Steffanie Strathdee of UC San Diego set out to save her husband’s life and what she re-discovered is nothing short of phenomenal! She initially said, “It was a cruel joke having this happen to a epidemiologist”.

But it wasn’t “God’s cruel joke” –it was God’s love and grace for His creation. He used this well-placed wife and scientist to rediscover the perfect cure. Makes perfect sense to me. God works like this all the time.

Tom and Steffanie’s story unfolds like a thriller. On holiday in Egypt, what at first seemed like a bad case of food poisoning, quickly turned critical. Tom was then flown to Germany, where doctors came across an abdominal abscess that was the size of a grapefruit. It contained a virulent bacterium known as Acinetobacter baumanii, resistant to all antibiotics. (This deadly pathogen was first found in the sands of the Middle East when American troops found them in their wounds after surviving bomb blasts. It was then nicknamed “Iraqibacter.”) The doctors were terrified, as in the past this ‘superbug’ has shut down entire hospitals. They couldn’t do a thing. (source)

So fighting for his life with his organs beginning to shut down, Tom was Medevaced to UC San Diego where he and Steffanie both worked. Blood work confirmed why nothing was helping: Tom was indeed fighting the #1 most dangerous, antibiotic-resistant bacteria known. (She goes into detail in the podcast at timestamp 9:15 below).

Tom’s superbug wasn’t an anomaly. Already, drug-resistant infections directly kill millions of people around the world—1.27 million in 2019—and contribute to millions more deaths, according to this 2022 study. In the U.S., more than 35,000 people die each year from antimicrobial-resistant infections, which can number 2.8 million annually, according to the CDC.

What causes this? It’s the misuse and overuse of antibiotics in medicine and confined livestock systems. (Doctors still prescribe antibiotics for viruses without culturing first. And compared to ‘factory farming’, if we went back to traditional pastured livestock, this wouldn’t be a widespread problem).

Thankfully, fighting to find something to help Tom, Steffanie learned about a century-old forgotten phage therapy developed by a French Canadian.

She came across a unique study conducted in Tbilisi, Georgia, where they regularly utilize phages for the treatment of drug-resistant bacteria. Being well-connected in the medical world, she made a few calls and Ryland Young, a biochemist at Texas A&M University who had been working with phages for over 45 years, responded. Young recalled, “We just dropped everything. No exaggeration; people were literally working 24/7, screening 100 different environmental samples to find just a couple of new phages.” (source)

What they uncovered might one day save millions of lives, including yours and mine.

Condensed version – 7 minutes.

In the past, attention to superbugs has mainly focused on the overuse of antibiotics—they are prescribed too much and applied aggressively in agriculture, allowing resistant pathogens to evolve. But now, there are pathways to explore that can save lives.

Steffanie and Tom’s book, The Perfect Predator: “A fascinating and terrifying memoir of one woman’s extraordinary effort to save her husband’s life – and the discovery of a forgotten cure that has the potential to save millions more.” ~Scientific American

Center for Innovative Phage Applications & Therapeutics (IPATH) Works With Referred Patients

I bring this to you so you can do further research: Check out IPATH’s Patient Information — Phage Therapy FAQ — Patient Stories

“For now (as of May, 2023), phage therapy is still experimental, and each case needs approval from the FDA in a single-use Investigational New Drug application. To employ phage therapy, cases must be life-threatening and caused by multi-drug-resistant infections. There are established centers such as IPATH at the University of California San Diego that help get these phage treatments to patients, and several clinical trials are ongoing.” (source)

What many of us have been stressing for years is to focus on prevention first thus strengthening the body’s terrain —and say no to antibiotics unless a life or death situation. And, we know antibiotics still may not work! We need to learn about (and use) alternative natural antibiotics like oral colloidal silver; nebulizing nanosilver; nebulizing hydrogen peroxide in saline; or live-saving homeopathy with the help of a homeopath.

Here is one of my go-to antibiotic substitutes that has worked well for over 35 years in our family.

I personally found out that overuse of antibiotics can be devastating. In the late 50s, my mom took me to the doctor for every-little-thing and he frequently gave me antibiotics. In my junior year of nursing school, I got strep throat and multiple antibiotics wouldn’t touch it. I reacted to them all w/hives and anaphylaxis. The strep made its way to my kidneys (I developed acute glomerulonephritis) and after 10 days in the renal unit, I ended up with the destruction of just over 50% of each kidney. I am still dealing with declining kidney function and am now in stage 3-4 renal disease – all due to antibiotic overuse as a kid.

We desperately need to go back to the “old ways” of preventatively consuming a wide variety of whole foods and God’s pharmacy of appropriate plant medicines. If my mom knew about these 16 homeopathic First Aid medications, at least, she wouldn’t have needed to take me to the doctor so often. We need to avoid man-made pharmaceutical drugs and resist invasive procedures. Research some of the many ways I’ve written about here and here.

A Truly Healthy “Herd” is the complete antithesis of a Drug Dependent Herd

“The person who takes medicine (pharmaceuticals) must recover twice, once from the disease and once from the medicine.”  -William Osler, M.D.

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