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Prognosis: Misconception

Superbugs' Natural Predator

Prognosis: Misconception

Bloomberg

Health & Fitness, Science

4.1838 Ratings

🗓️ 12 September 2019

⏱️ 28 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Joel Grimwood was almost certainly going to die. The pump that kept his failing heart going had become infected, and surgery after surgery had scraped away parts of his chest. Drugs didn’t work because the bacteria were in a slime, impenetrable to antibiotics. What saved his life was a little-known treatment called phage therapy. Popular in the former Soviet Union, they’ve fallen out of favor in the West. The viruses are the natural predator of bacteria, and a small number of scientists are trying to turn them against the threat.

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Transcript

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0:00.0

Are you looking for a new podcast about stuff related to money?

0:05.3

Well, today's your lucky day.

0:07.1

I'm Matt Levine.

0:08.2

And I'm Katie Greifeld.

0:09.5

And we are the hosts of Money Stuff, The Podcast.

0:13.0

Every Friday, we dive into the top stories about Wall Street, finance, and other stuff.

0:17.9

We have fun. We get weird, and we want you to join us. You can listen to

0:22.0

Many Stuff the Podcasts on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

0:56.4

As infections become harder to treat because of antibiotic resistance, scientists are enlisting help from bacteria's oldest enemy, viruses. So-called bacteria phages, literally bacteria eaters, are viruses that target bacteria.

1:01.8

While researchers have known about them for a century, and even use them to treat people,

1:07.1

these biological agents have been largely ignored in most of the world since penicillin became available. Until recently, that is.

1:12.6

Welcome to Prognosis, a podcast about health and science, medical technology, and the changes that are underway across the world.

1:20.6

I'm your host, Michelle Fay-Cortez.

1:23.6

For our third season, we're delving deeply into the human cost of bacterial infections that can't be stopped by even our most potent antibiotics.

1:33.3

The loss of these miracle cures has been described as one of the biggest threats to global public health.

1:40.3

It spurred a search for alternatives to antibiotics.

1:43.3

In this episode, Bloomberg's Jason Gale explores how that effort is leading scientists back to a Soviet-era-inspired treatment, known as phage therapy, that's saving the lives of patients who couldn't be cured with antibiotics alone.

1:58.4

He also examines the discoveries being made in some of England's

2:01.7

smelliest soils that promise to protect us against two major sources of deadly disease.

2:09.8

Here's Jason.

2:15.1

This is Joel Grimwood. He's a retired chiropractor who lives at the end of a dirt road in the hills outside of

2:21.5

Reno, Nevada, with Jasmine, his 50-pound bulldog pit bull terrier cross, and more recently

...

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