Since 2019, Belgium has approved the use of bacteriophages to treat antibiotic-resistant infections. More than 100 patients have already been treated with these bacterial viruses.

The laboratory, which produces customized phage preparations for patients, is located at the Queen Astrid Military Hospital in Brussels. Bacteriophage treatment is prescribed to patients who have failed several courses of various antibiotics due to multidrug-resistant bacteria. The laboratory reports that approximately 70% of patients receiving phage preparations experienced clinical improvement; they are preparing a detailed report.

In January 2022, a description* of one of the cases of phage therapy at the Queen Astrid Hospital was published in the journal Nature Communications.

In March 2016, a 30-year-old woman was seriously injured in a terrorist attack (explosion) at Brussels Airport. During treatment, her wound became infected, and months of intensive antibiotic therapy failed to clear the infection, despite causing a number of severe side effects. The main problem was infection with the pathogenic bacterium Klebsiella pneumoniae, which is multiply resistant to antibiotics.

Doctors decided to try phage therapy. A bacterial sample was sent to the Giorgi Eliava Institute of Bacteriophages in Tbilisi, Georgia, to search for specific bacteriophages. The institute has been actively using phage therapy to treat a wide variety of infections since the 1920s. Georgian specialists isolated a specific bacteriophage and pre-adapted it, further increasing its effectiveness against K. pneumoniae .

The phage preparation was ready for use as early as November 2016, but some doctors in Belgium were hesitant to begin therapy with this new method. The woman's condition did not improve, and finally, in February 2018, treatment with a combination of the phage preparation and an antibiotic was initiated. Within a few weeks, the patient's condition improved significantly: the wound on her thigh began to heal, and she was able to walk and even ride a bicycle.

Despite the success stories of phage therapy, its use in many Western countries remains limited due to certain legal barriers. In Belgium, however, phages have been given the green light: in 2019, the Federal Agency for Medicines and Healthcare Products implemented a system that significantly facilitated access to phage therapy in the country.

* Eskenazi A, Lood C, Wubbolts J et al. Combination of pre-adapted bacteriophage therapy and antibiotics for treatment of fracture-related infection due to pandrug-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae // Nature Commun, 2022; 13:302. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-27656-z