Phages: the tiny viruses that could help beat superbugs

Bacteriophages were superseded by modern antibiotics, but scientists believe they could be key to conquering antimicrobial resistance

It is, say enthusiasts, the cure that the world forgot. An old therapy that could take on the new superbugs.

Discovered in 1917 by French Canadian biologist Felix d'Herelle, phages - or bacteriophages - are tiny viruses that are natural predators of bacteria. In many countries they were supplanted during the second world war by antibiotics but continued to be used for decades in eastern Europe.