bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics have become a serious problem. in germany alone 35000 people are infected with these bacteria every year we do this and it's a difficult situation and it's getting worse every moment. in the u.s. scientists are looking for solutions by studying medicinal plants used for centuries by indigenous people. it's especially important to find new ways to treat infectious diseases today. in the caucasus republic of georgia doctors are treating some of these infections without antibiotics. the fair a-p. in germany didn't work for a few. experts say that resistance to antibiotics represents a major threat to public health around the world.

treatment programs in georgia have given some patients new hope echo heard an a from maria traveled more than 3000 kilometers from their home in eastern germany to the georgian capital tbilisi. called over the rule of law i was desperate to find a solution for crime when i heard about these alternative therapy programs and peace from europe and georgia would serve them all store well by your book good ones well you know all. the hard is being treated at the therapy center. he and his wife are accompanied by an interpreter. after eckart had heart surgery the surgical scars became infected with back to. the infection spread to the membrane that surrounds the sternum or

breastbone. he had numerous surgeries and antibiotic treatments to try to correct the problem but nothing worked. jailed or changed the therapy in germany didn't work and it's i tried everything busy. during my last hospital stay in germany i came to the conclusion that the usual therapy surgery and antibiotics had no effect at all this those the infections always came back quickly as i gave last night's. video before. one doctor actually recommended removing the entire sternum was also the. i didn't like that idea at all so i started looking for alternatives. and i decided that this program in georgia might work and get all real foolishness.

cards and his medical records to the clinic in tbilisi the medical staff then told him that they could treat the infection with a process called phage therapy. and. this involves the use of bacteria phages which are viruses that infect the bacteria and kill it. dr cook is preparing the 1st dose of fate is. this sort of therapy is not approved in western europe to serve over you for years what i'm going toto. i'm here at the beginning we use a very general type of fish that. then we take a sample from the affected area and analyze it to see whether we need a more specialized type of phage that is its own then we can create those in our laboratory. side of your 4. doctor for weeds and now injects the pages into the area around the sternum. phages are viruses that break

into a bacterial cell and start reproducing this kills the cell then if age looks around for more bacteria to infect once all the bacteria in the problem area are destroyed the phages die. phages are also injected into the 2 surgical scars in a card chest. this clinic is home to the world's largest phage bank. your home in western germany is home to another couple who know firsthand about the problems of bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics sibylla i had foot surgery and the area around the incisions later became infected doctors could do nothing to

treat the problem and eventually had to amputate her left leg below the knee. never lets the defection just wouldn't go away the doctors kept treating it with antibiotics but it didn't help i was running a fever the whole time and i finally asked them to remove the leg this hour. gets me on a flight for almost 2 years she had extreme pain in her leg it was an out of the hospital and i watched her go through. and then finally we realized that a petition was the only option left lets the. top thought. that was 8 years ago. and in germany today alternative therapy for treating bacterial infections is still not allowed. sibylla says this

situation makes no sense at all. is that in the best it will be grace if we had access to alternative treatment programs. and about 6 are used way too often in just about every operation that's a huge problem isn't liza won't name. some bacteria have developed mechanisms that protect them against the effects of antibiotics so the drugs kill only non resistant bacteria. and these super bacteria pose a serious threat to public health not least because they multiply quickly. sybil is all too familiar with this situation but she's grateful that she was able to recover successfully from her surgery and to get on with her life her pride is still intact and to stay physically fit she exercises a lot. that mean i don't want to walk with

a limb it would make me feel like i'm handicapped and this is according to. but now she's dealing with a new medical problem she's been diagnosed with ask you arthritis in her right leg . sibylla who's 61 years old was deeply concerned about having another operation. and yeah lungful i've been putting it off for years but now that's no longer possible i'm getting in the uni and i'm really worried because of what happened the last time has had a lot of a funny dopey angst. she delayed the operation because she was concerned about bacterial infection. bacteria phages research is becoming more common in germany. sewage treatment plants provide scientists with a rich resource if ages and resistant bacteria they can test. dr christina roeder

a microbiologist works at the lightness institute in the city of branch by. warner says that this treated sewage may help them to understand better how features work. is open but having only done for bacteria phages has viruses that can destroy specific pathogens. yeah why the there are a lot of different kinds of bacteria in this move. and bacteria phages are among the world's most common organisms on fog hogs and where it's leave them off the. road is current research is based on that of her colleagues in georgia she's trying to find 3 specific phages that could be used together to treat a dangerous kind of lung infection. the w.h.o. has identified 12 families of antibiotic resistant bacteria that pose

a serious threat to human health 3 are especially dangerous dr rohde has found phages that could control these bacteria. that's one of our i mean the great thing about bacteria phages is that we know that they're effective based on the research of our colleagues in eastern europe. man and we're always finding new faces and in the. e.u. requires that phages be subjected to various testing procedures just like new medicines. yarmulke hertz therapy offers some marvelous opportunities. but we need clinical studies to prove that it's safe and effective. fix it hasn't worked for. good it is working with dr hold good cheer from the front hope for institute to produce features that can be officially classified as medicines. on the up stairs to the side so excited thus far that's and this meets our goal is to

demonstrate the pages should be considered that seals did not want to take the procedures developed by our colleagues in georgia and developed phages that can be officially approved as medicinal products here in europe and you know what parts of tablets it's about mr justice to be put us out we should exist us at this project 10 years ago and works harder to develop phage therapy because so many patients need it right now in the pub stamper about between. the 1st german phage drug is now being tested at the shore into hospital in berlin. deep in the swamps of the southeastern u.s. state of georgia ethno botanist cassandra quaver in her research team are also looking for alternatives to antibiotics. all right we're going to look for that c.z.

alba which i believe is over in this area here they have the big black fruits on them in the bean family this is used as a treatment for wounds and and kind of cuts they would dig up their roots and make it a caution to rinse infected wounds so this one is of interest for us to collect so many shovels when you 1st bouncers the whole work up. the researchers wear leggings to protect against poisonous snakes. because sandra is lower right leg was amputated when she was a child then she developed. an infection caused by antibiotic resistant bacteria that prompted her interest in this kind of research. you know she's studying indigenous people's use of medicinal plants to fight bacterial infections. we should be able to try this in a couple of days or dryers. get ready for the lab. it's

especially important to find new ways to treat infectious diseases today because we're facing a big crisis in medicine and that's the rise of you know biotech resistance and i think that plants may be able to share some of the answers. the researchers have been working for 4 hours in hot weather and now it's time to wrap up for the day. the plant samples will be identified and catalogued. sundra is doing all she can to prevent the spread of bad about it resistant bacteria for example she's found a way to fight bacteria that are often found in body wounds in the gray areas of the brazilian pepper tree. each plant tissue this leak actually contains hundreds if not thousands of unique molecules the fruits might have different chemicals plants make these compounds for their own defense. the big challenge now is figuring out which compounds are

responsible for activity are they safe to use and can they be developed into the next generation of the right back to drugs. the plant samples are crushed and dried and then sent to a laboratory. no cassandra starts looking for the active elements that will contribute to her research. what we're trying to do with these kind of therapy is is to avoid direct killing of the microbes instead we're disabling their ability to create toxins and other factors that destroyed. human tissues by doing that it essentially weakens the microbes to the point where our own immune system can wipe them out the goal here is not to eradicate all microbes in our on the body we need a lot of our microbes. it's a lot of hard work but the researchers believe the effort is worth it.

meanwhile eko hard eisler has been at the clinic in tbilisi for 2 weeks in germany he had faced the prospect of surgeons removing his breastbone because of infection problems. now he's undergoing feed treatments 5 times a week. the material is injected into the affected area and is also administered to the 2 surgical scars that have not yet healed. and how does it look dr drew. the upper one is closed all. the lower one is still open but the discharge of fluid has decreased significantly . i used to feel a certain amount of tightness in my chest just right around the sternum. but it's

gone down to it's with. a patient from the netherlands is also being treated here natasha hartman suffered from a viral infection that turned even minor bruises into serious wounds the virus is spread throughout her body the clinic staff developed a batch of specifically designed to fight the infection. charbonneau costs less a settlement lost some of the doctor told me that if i was lucky i might have 10 years to live if not i must have just one year. back in holland they treated me with several kinds of antibiotics of a 14 years but it didn't help so i decided to come to this clinic. the treatment seemed to be working and i hope that the wounds will heal by making progress i don't want to have to worry about dying i just want to get on with my life and that's not my let's just say i want to finish it i leave. the patients pay for the

therapy treatment plus the cost of travel and accommodations out of their own pocket the therapy alone cost $3900.00 euros. these people have one thing in common and he infection treatments in their home countries didn't work. the therapy is working right absolutely. it's hard also takes regular doses of features in liquid form this distributes them throughout the bloodstream. the most probably if you take a serious look at the problem of and i bow to resistance and it's clear that they have to try some new treatment methods was modest and. as far as what that means fate just like the ones they use here and it just so the victims all.

bacteria that can resist and about ics are spreading rapidly they've become a serious problem in hospitals. dr martin fits in rochester deal with the situation every day in his work at berlin's charlotte a hospital the bacteria can get into the respiratory tract of patients through medical equipment like ventilators. just in the commons and often for we have a real problem with multi resistant bacteria panic it's affecting our ability to treat some patients and we've even started using older supplies around to bionics and. we didn't do that for years because these medicines could cause serious side effects. at the same time a lot of the new drugs don't combat bacteria effectively so that's why we're looking into alternative therapy strategies and that is the sense of comfort. that

in that you know i think. the european medicines agency estimates that multi resistant bacteria kill 25000 people in europe every year this situation represents a serious challenge for health care providers that's been thought of for i know who and feed off and on and we'll be seeing higher medical costs more patients in the health care systems and a big increase in treatment programs. and when i can't say at this point how long i'll be able to keep this problem under control. but i think that over the medium term it will perhaps in just a few years we'll have to deal with even more pathogens that we simply won't be able to treat. dr vincent wright and his team are conducting preliminary laboratory evaluations of faith based medicines developed by the likeness institute. the medicines are being tested on human lung tissue. it's out

on the bacteria phages are being used in some creep in programs in europe that start off with so you've seen a number of case studies that indicated there are effective. or does the best of my knowledge there have been no definitive tests on possible side effects yes just use these medicines are to receive official approval for use with patients so we'll have to evaluate all the possible risks of the ones you saw. no such studies have been done in georgia but doctors there use phages to treat patients anyway the e.u. however requires extensive tests. as i'm better off without so it's a race against time but we definitely need more evidence before we can put these medicines on the market are going to last for to suffer to the.

well biofeedback technology is still being tested in germany it's actually being used in poland here at the hirschfeld institute in brussels. they are to melike side a force there and her husband come round live in vienna the artist suffers from a chronic bladder infection caused by multi resistant germs only one at about it has proven effective in treating the problem. isn't a fact it's had he learned he says and we have no idea how long that mets and will continue to work in the bacteria could develop a resistance against. him. fadden company but fates they repeat can be used again and again until the bacteria are destroyed. i believe that this therapy will help me to live longer. and i need funding that are. still fade

therapy is not widely available in poland. it can only be used if recommended by a doctor and only after standard therapy options have failed as in the autist case . so. doctors. just insurgent is in charge of her treatment programs. is using phages developed specifically for this patient. he's been working with just for 13 years and says the therapy requires some patients. but affect everyone differently. but in general we see the 1st improvements after 2 to 3 weeks of treatment. the full program usually lasts $4.00 to $6.00 weeks but of course every patient's immune system is different and so are the bacteria that we're dealing with. to look at folks that interest. at this point dr

treats only patients for whom all other kinds of treatment have failed in poland pages can be used as experimental therapy. it says that phage therapy has saved the lives of several patients. we can successfully treat 40 to 60 percent of patients who suffer from infections caused by resistant bacteria and cannot be effectively treated with antibiotics because. the fetus will be administered to the patient's bladder for 3 days in a row. the therapy program cost $650.00 euros. this is the artist's 3rd round of treatment after the 1st session she was free of symptoms for 14 weeks. hopefully my i'm still hoping for a full recovery and. garden

eva maria eisler have now returned home to germany after 4 weeks at the clinic in georgia. if a maria administers the phage treatments and she sees some progress. or not this the bottom ones closed and it looks like the top one is too it's not as good that would be great it wasn't quite closed yesterday can you put a bit more on it. both wounds on eco hard chest are now closed for the 1st time in months it looks like the phages have managed to destroy the bacteria.

done. it guard says his doctor has been following his progress closely. for it's why i went to see your 2 weeks ago and she was quite pleased with the results of the phage therapy golden gun says it swiftly even so she says it was a good idea for us to sign up for that program go as doesn't scoot for us for this enough time. echo harvey who is now 73 years old still takes a dose of phages in liquid form 3 times a day. she's a natural butare they don't cause as much trouble as due to those drugs can destroy good bacteria in the intestines but these have few. side effects call i have no problems with this their appeal at all in the making. that card will have some tests soon to see whether the inflammation in the sternum has also cleared up but right now he feels great. my limbs for

a movie to appear i'm definitely enjoying life again as well because the therapy is working. but as i started noticing positive changes even while i was still at the clinic in georgia fest even during the 1st week of treatment the tivo in and the good of the storm but this oh yes i'm enjoying life the no 2 lives for to start with closure. it does seem possible to treat bacterial infections by using bio phages or medicinal plants instead of out of iyonix they could provide a viable alternative as the threat of multi resistant bacteria continues to grow.

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