Researchers said they successfully treated a patient's drug-resistant infection using genetically engineered viruses, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Why it matters: This is the first reported use of genetically engineered bacteriophages to treat a patient, according to the researchers. If its success can be replicated, that could be a big deal for the effort to tackle drug-resistant infections.
Details:
- The patient's treatment used bacteria-destroying viruses that are called bacteriophages, which occur naturally.
- The scientists used genetic engineering to tweak the phages to specifically target the patient's infection.
The impact: The UN recently warned that drug resistance could kill 10 million people a year by 2050.
Go deeper: The antibiotics market is falling apart
