Increase use of phages to combat antibiotic resistance, urges UK scientist

Prof Martha Clokie says treatment with bacteria-killing viruses could become routine for some conditions

The use of experimental therapies based on bacteria-killing viruses needs to be rapidly scaled up in the NHS to combat the worsening threat of antibiotic resistance, one of the UK’s leading scientists has said.

Prof Martha Clokie, who has pioneered research into bacteriophages, or phages, at the University of Leicester, said the approach was helping a growing number of patients in compassionate use cases, and could become a routine treatment in future for conditions such as chronic UTIs and diabetic foot ulcers.