Are there any controversies surrounding phage therapy?
Yes. Whereas Felix d’Herelle was highly successful in treating dysentery in rural France and cholera in India, other early attempts to treat infections with phage gave mixed results. A review of phage therapy commissioned by the Council on Pharmacy and Chemistry of the American Medical Association concluded in 1934 that the “evidence for the therapeutic value of lytic filtrates is for the most part contradictory” (Eaton,M.D. and Stanhope, B-J, Journal of the American Medical Association, Volume 103, pp. 1769 – 1776; 1847 – 1853;1934 – 1939). The use of the phrase “lytic filtrates” in place of phage reflects the Commission’s bias that the nature of phage was not yet known. This assessment had adverse effects on further exploration of phage therapy in the United States and the advent of antibiotics later in that decade effectively stopped the development of phage therapy except in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.
