AGEofthePHAGE.com has been created to support and promote the revival of phage therapies and development of phage applications that will combat AMR and save lives. Global Health Dialogue is helping to increase global awareness of the phage with the launch of #WorldPhageDay, 22nd October and #WorldPhageWeek, 22nd-28th October. This time the phage will not retreat into the shadows.
Nature's Ninjas
Phages are the most numerous and diverse entities on the planet, harmless to humans, animals and the environment, but deadly to susceptible pathogenic bacteria. Discovered over 100 years ago, phage therapy was tried extensively in the West in the 1920s and 1930s. Despite the desperate clinical battle against infections in the pre-antibiotic era, phage therapy was largely undeveloped by the time penicillin was made widely available in the 1940s. The easy to use and highly effective broad spectrum penicillin antibiotic became known as the 'miracle drug' - saving millions of lives. Consequently interest in further development of the wide-ranging potential offered by bacteriophages waned and apart from Russia and a few other countries, phage therapy was largely neglected by Western scientists.
As antimicrobial resistance increases, with no new antibiotics in the pipeline, more governments are beginning to allocate funding for further research on phage therapy. The dramatic advances in technology are enabling the pioneering research required to fully discover the potential of phage therapies and application.
To successfully combat the threat to global health posed by the ever-increasing antimicrobial, fungal and antimalarial resistance requires a global coordinated response, new antibiotics and alternative therapeutics. The long overlooked potential offered by bacteriophage development is now being recognised and researched as one lifesaving option.
WORLD PHAGE WEEK Awareness Campaign
World Phage Week (22nd - 28th October) and World Phage Day (22nd October) provide an opportunity to promote the long-overlooked phage - the most diverse organism on the planet. The awareness creating week recalls the important pioneering work of the Frederick Twort and Felix d’Herelle and celebrates the collaborative work of everyone, past and present, involved in pioneering the development of phage therapy.
Phage researchers and ‘Phage Phans’ around the world are encouraged to join with AGEofthePHAGE.com and promote awareness of the wide-ranging and life-saving potential offered by phage development.
Please promote #WorldPhageDay (22nd October) and #WorldPhageWeek (22nd to 28th October)
Do tweet our banners and create your own phage images for social media and organise special events.
Please send details of any phage-related promotional actions you organise or participate in to contact [at] AGEofthePHAGE.com
