Peculiarities of Bacteriophages Use in Clinical Practice

Abstract

Infectious diseases are one of the most common causes of morbidity worldwide. Despite the scientific and technological advances of the 21^st century, the mortality rate of infections remains high. Inappropriate use of antibiotics in recent years has particularly increased the number of antibiotic-resistant strains. Bacteriophage is a virus, which has an ability to destroy a bacterial cell, including antibiotic-resistant strains. Bacteriophage is considered as an alternative treatment for respiratory and gastrointestinal infections. Therefore, it will be very informative to identify the features of bacteriophage use in clinical practice. The aim was to study bacteriophage use in clinical practice in Georgia by various physicians. A questionnaire was used to assess the bacteriophage use. Overall 200 acting physicians were interviewed. 71.2% of respondents use phage in clinical practice. Most frequently are being used pyobacteriophage (43.1%) and intestiphage (32.3%) Most of them treat adults. However, as expected, phages are used more extensively in pediatrics. The phages are mainly used for treatment of respiratory and intestinal infections. Commonly doctors prescribe a phage whithout antibiotic which is a positive trend. 38.2% of physicians assessed the efficiency of the phage as 5 out of 5 (4.7% assessed it as 1 out of 5). It has been shown that in order to improve phagotherapy it is important to increase phage availability, reduce prices, develop national guidelines and provide more information about bacteriophages.