Sometimes, what’s old is new again—even in the ever-advancing world of medicine.

The use of bacteriophages—viruses that feast on bacteria—to fight infectious diseases began in France 100 years ago. As the most abundant organisms on earth, with each type having evolved to destroy a specific bacterial host, phages are nature’s version of precision medicine. As such, they enjoyed a brief vogue in the United States before being displaced by the much broader-based antibiotics in the 1940s.

中文翻译：

---

噬菌体疗法在抗药性致病菌中的作用

有时，即使在不断发展的医学世界中，旧的又是新的。

100年前，法国开始使用噬菌体（以细菌为食的病毒）来抵抗传染病。噬菌体是地球上最丰富的生物体，每种类型都可以进化为破坏特定的细菌宿主，因此自然是精密医学的一种版本。因此，他们在美国经历了短暂的流行，然后在1940年代被范围更广的抗生素所取代。