An Alternative Cure: The Adoption and Survival of Bacteriophage Therapy in the USSR, 1922-1955.

This article explains the adoption and survival of phage therapy in the USSR. By focusing on the Tbilisi Institute of Microbiology, Epidemiology and Bacteriophage (now the Eliava Institute), I argue that bacteriophage research appealed to Soviet scientists because it offered an ecological model for understanding bacterial infection. In the 1930s, phage therapy grew firmly imbedded within the infrastructure of Soviet microbiological institutes. During the Second World War, bacteriophage preparations gained practical recognition from physicians and military authorities. At the dawn of the Cold War, the growing scientific isolation of Soviet science protected phage therapy from the contemporary western critiques, and the ecological program of research into bacteriophages continued in Georgia. PMID: 30312428 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
Source: Medical History - Category: History of Medicine Authors: Tags: J Hist Med Allied Sci Source Type: research