Dear Colleagues:
There is a discussion on the net about the use of bacteriophages to
replace antibiotics in the treatment of infectious agents. This worries me
because there is enough evidence that bacteriophages play a role in increased
virulence (e.g. diphtheria, flesh-eating streptococci). In our own study we
tried to use WB1 bacteriophage to clear Brucella abortus out of balb/c mice.
The result was a 200-fold increase in spleen counts over controls (see Arch.
Med. Vet. 27:23-28). Are you sure you want to be opening Pandora's Box?...John
