At a splendid HCAIs conference here in London UK, along with 650 healthcare professionals, I got to hear about the current state of play with handwashing, cleaning, antibiotic policy, screening and decontamination by fogging hydrogen peroxide vapour (which they confusingly call HPV). Vaccines inevitably came up, and ex-health minister Edwina Currie got a round of applause for describing junior docs as "too posh to wash".  E.coli and NDM1 seem to have got them all stumped and we were told by Professor John Oxford at Barts that Mother Nature will get us!
I am glad that Earl Howe reminded everyone to "First do no harm", and I told him so on the crowded underground, but I think his advice (in Latin) to all those conventionally trained doctors and nurses might have fallen on deaf ears.

So what about the current state of play in the UK regarding alternatives such as phage therapy, ozone therapy, probiotics, natural antimicrobials like copper alloys, silver, the fresh air factor, ionized water, nutrition and nurturing the immune system? What about state of the art UV air handling technology? None of these got a mention of course from the speakers throughout the entire day. From this end it looked as if nothing much has progressed since 2007-8 when I was doing my Churchill Fellowship and observing a phase 2 clinical trial on phage therapy in a NHS hospital, bang in the middle of London.

Even my comments on the conference organisers' debate forum seem to have been met with the resounding silence of apathy for weeks!

So undaunted, I corresponded with one of the speakers, Professor Barry Cookson, who works at the Health Protection Agency in Colindale, and he has kindly permitted me to quote him from his experience.

"The main area where treatment is needed is in the highly resistant strains (I know one can make a case for using them [phages] instead of antibiotics for treatment to reduce selection pressure)

When we pushed for detailed information from phage typing centres on these aspects it was not available and the devil is in the detail.

We used to spend many hours developing new phages for resistant strains for typing and I can tell you it is a nightmare.  Acinetobacter and MRSA are cases in point.  Remember also that the types of MRSA in particular vary around the EU and so you cannot extrapolate from Georgia to England for example…… In England we have mainly ONE mrsa now and it is very resistant indeed to phages."

"Again I say it has to be monitored for resistance."

Now, remembering a Scottish team of scientists who had successfully fixed MRSA phages onto sutures (with the knowledge of former Health Secretary John Reid), I was delighted to receive the following news from Professor Mike Mattey, the Chief Scientific Officer of Fixed Phage Ltd., plus a photograph which brings home a very useful point of fact. In his own words:

"Things are indeed going well here (at last!). Fixed-phage is up and running, the web site went public this week, we have a new lab and are making progress; there is a lot of interest from the "big boys" in phage applications in several fields so hopefully we can get some products to market before too long ( well, a couple of years!).
As regards [Professor Cookson's] comments, I agree with his first statement, but find the second puzzling. As far as I know MRSA 15 is still dominant ( around 60% af MRSA in UK) with 16 covering the rest, although he may well have more up to date figures. However both are sensitive to a number of phages, most usefully phage K ( about 70% of all SA strains are lysed by K). The image attached  is of an MRSA 15 lawn with a bit of our suture with phage K attached on it. OK, it's an immobilised bacteriophage (about 5000 on the filament) but its specificity is the same as "free" K and I think you will agree, it kills MRSA15!"

I do hope the HPA and others will make use of this good news.  After all, it was back in January 2009 where the Chairman of the HPA Board, Sir William Stewart, actually suggested a "think tank" where it was minuted that "a further area worth consideration was the use of bacteriophage in healthcare". After all, if Mother Nature will get us, then Mother Nature will get bacteria and HCAIs too, so why don't we simply get the hint and start making use of her own products instead of reinventing the wheel, blaming inadequately trained healthcare workers or throwing up our hands in fear and despondency.

As Mr Churchill famously said, "Give us the tools and we will finish the job".

If you're quick you can add to a debate that I 've just heard about:

https://jolitics.com/p/post/1491/

The proposal is: The government should allow the NHS to use phagetherapy to cure MRSA and should inform all patients that an effective cure exists

Thank you to Professor Betty Kutter for sharing with me the news of the most recent phage therapy review, for issue 2 of the new Bacteriophage online journal. I agree, I love all the French work that the US scientists translated into English while working on it, giving a very different perspective on phage use in the Western world. So for decades, language made a major barrier here, as for the Former Soviet Union. France clearly continued to be more involved than Poland, probably only behind Georgia -- and they kept working together.

Hear hear! - collaboration, not competition. I have been saying it for years.

Mind you, clearly our leading British politicians don't care a jot about what Grace Filby likes to hear.

Here are the articles, all open access: http://www.landesbioscience.com/journals/bacteriophage/toc/volume/1/issue/2/

Sent: 25 March 2011 11:21
To: Wellcome Collection Info
Subject: Dirt enquiry

Dear Wellcome Collection,
 
I have a question for the lead curator, Kate Forde about the new Dirt programme.  Is there anything about bacteriophages please, in the exhibition or any of the events or the forthcoming book?

Thank you,
 
Grace Filby (Ms)



From: Wellcome Collection Info <info@wellcomecollection.org>
Date: 29 March 2011 16:47
Subject: RE: Dirt enquiry

Dear Grace,
 
Thanks for your email and interest in our exhibition, Dirt. I am afraid that we do not have anything on bacteriophages in the exhibition or the book. There is also nothing in our events programme. I am afraid that our programme can only cover a finite amount of areas, and as such we have been unable to include all the different references to dirt.
 
I hope this information is useful to you and please let me know if I can help further.
 
Regards,
 
Lizzy Baddeley
Lizzy Baddeley
Visitor Services Assistant
Wellcome Collection
183 Euston Road
London NW1 2BE
+44(0)20 7611 2222
www.wellcomecollection.org
 

The newspapers today are bearing splendid tributes to the life of Dame Elizabeth Taylor, including full page photographs of her looking absolutely beautiful.

I have little doubt that none of them will have commented on her brush with death exactly 50 years ago this month, when she was stricken with staphylococcal pneumonia in London. If it hadn't been for a quick-thinking fan who wrote a letter recommending phage therapy from her own personal experience, then she might never have had those 50 extra years. 

With help from a US physician who explored the American newsaper archives, I wrote the story a couple of years ago for posterity on this very blog.  The exact reference is this:  http://www.amazingphage.info/page6.htm#34864 .

If we are celebrating the success of MRSA-Busters 50 years since it arrived on this earth, then we must include all those underground resistance workers, with their wonderful coloured costumes and disguises. It's the Vitamin Brigade that are life's little essentials, and it's Vitamin C that leads the way in the fight against MRSA.

Water-soluble, C can squeeze his way out of practically all fruits and vegetables and comes highly recommended by General Montgomery in WW2 - he brought back a huge box of oranges from North Africa, right in the middle of a freezing English winter. If you're really desperate battling with MRSA,  remember that Vitamin C has been administered by injection in high doses - there are various books and information available that show how and why this is done, but it is rather a military secret, yes? Word on the street is that it's because it jolly well works.

Oily young D is right there next to him - yes, nickname of Sunny or Sunday, AKA Fishy because of the Cod Liver variety.  Here's a favourite quote of his: "The latest findings on Vitamin D, those on resistant bacteria, and those on the human body's response to bright light, suggest that George Bernard Shaw was right to turn his hut towards the sun after all." Richard Hobday PhD wrote that in The Light Revolution which I reviewed and highly recommended in 2006. Five years on and yet MRSA battles still continue, to the death.

We could go through the whole Vitamin Brigade but I would especially like to invite B17 as a Guest of Honour. He already has a high military rank being a Colonel, or should I spell it Kernel. Soft skinned with a gentle glow and sweet by nature, he's a hard nut to crack, even under torture.  He goes by the name of Apricot and is very much an 'under the radar' kind of vitamin. The story goes that, hounded by the MHRA and even the BBC when people were singing his praises, he was confiscated in a dawn raid, subjected to a court case that was farcical (in my humble opinion - actually I was once called a barrack-room lawyer, but that's another story), turned into a criminal and forced to work in a charity shop as punishment. Eventually he was dumped back outside the door one morning in a black plastic sack, along with all his Green Tea mates. I am pleased to say that these now live a peaceful existence in my kitchen in their very own special tin.  As well as these adventures and indignities, Kernel Apricot B17 has thoroughly earned his honours on different battlefields, in the bitterly faught Cancer Wars, and has certainly done well to survive such persecution. I saw him on eBay the other day.

We must also make sure that the other essential nursing staff are well represented at this MRSA knees-up.

Staff Nurse Tea Tree wears wonderful perfume, a smart green uniform and a pretty smile. Her real name is Melaleuca - isn't it beautiful? There are so many others with fancy names although I don't remember all of them and their job descriptions. The secret with essential oils, which I will whisper to you here, is that it is all about quality. Then, and I will say this only once, you need to know that they work together synergistically, just as a well-run hospital should. One rotten member of staff and it spoils the others and lets down the whole team, making a horrible stink.

I suggest the MRSA party organisers would be Strictly Organic so look out for their handsome big-hearted boss, Big Farmer (not to be confused with Big Pharma - the infamous, hideously fat and mega-rich master spy. You know the type - built like a concrete tank trap with dragon's teeth - forces drugs and needles into innocent people like there's no tomorrow - laughs a lot - hangs out with bankers, politicians and Decision Makers).

With all these little resistance workers, rank and file and even top brass at this special event, perhaps we should extend an invitation to Vancomycin out of courtesy. After all he is a well known name in the medical world and some people owe their lives to him. But if he comes then I insist he does some sort of a peace deal with Master Chief Petty Officer Probiotics and Field Marshal Phage at long last.

And as a mark of respect for his patience and great honour in battle for time immemorial, I would like to nominate Field Marshal Phage for the Order of the Bath.

Finally we must surely have some spice girls as entertainment. Turmeric and Ginger are two that spring to mind. Music, MAESTRO! (or should that be VISA...oh well - sigh.)

Maybe the Bacteriophage Applications UK conference organisers already know that it's the 50th birthday for MRSA on 2nd October 2011. Even the biggest and best pharmaceutical companies have been unable to match the strength of MRSA without causing more untold misery from diarrhoea and death as side effects. Unfortunately it all originated here in Surrey, UK in 1961, just down the road from here. I won't mention names since they already know who they are.

I say we should instead, have a bit of a knees-up to celebrate the MRSA-defeating success stories, the military strategists bearing such wonderful names as

Field Marshal Phage
General Sunlight
Wing Commander Gutsy
Air Chief Marshal Ozone
Admiral Ionised-Water
Colonel Copper
Group Captain Garlic
Sergeant Major Silver
Private Maggot
UV (this is a codename - on a secret service mission)
and the sweetest one of all - Sister Honey.

No doubt, there are more.
I am sure Petty Officer Probiotics is an ally. I heard he's up for promotion.
Field Marshal Phage has trillions of progeny.
32 WW2 pigeons won a Dickin Medal for their bravery delivering messages, some of them from here in Reigate. We could arrange a special flypast and a brass band. Not to worry about the mess because that's how phages spread naturally, doing Sterling work.

We could also celebrate the fact that now we have over 12,000 people who have visited Amazingphage.info since I was awarded my Winston Churchill Travelling Award Fellowship - thank you. The very first video clip that I posted on YouTube at that time in Spring 2007 deliberately had no sound and no captions, and now it has had over two and a quarter million viewings. Isn't that amazing, with no advertising budget and no staff - just goodwill and good friends.

P.S. The next day I added some more to this silly story. Please scroll up to 14. 3 2011.
As author I insist on the movie rights!

OK, as usual I probably won't be able to go, but I have just learned from a US associate that there will be a conference at St Hilda's College, Oxford, here in the UK from 19-21 September 2011.

Phages2011: Bacteriophage Applications
- the 1st Oxford International Conference on bacteriophage applications in medicine and biotechnology.
http://www.libpubmedia.co.uk/Conferences/Phages2011/Home.htm

Key topics?

.        Immune responses

.        Clinical trials

.        Regulatory issues

.        Food safety

This week, two of my amazing phage friends simultaneously alerted me to an item being broadcast live on BBC Woman's Hour, 16-02-11. You can listen to it online here  or ask me to send you the audio file.

Professor David Salisbury is Head of Immunisation in the Department of Health. He says the issue that was important in choosing between two new HPV vaccines was COST EFFECTIVENESS - VALUE FOR MONEY. Safety and side effects didn't get a mention. Professor Salisbury refused to talk about money but he did state that they have managed to "add an additional year cohort of girls to the programme ... for the money we saved". In the review coming up soon, "whoever wins, it will be a transparent and open fight".

Well, well, well. That reminds me of a paper that my Polish scientist friends sent over in 2007 and I featured it in my Churchill Fellows Report and on YouTube with piccies from my 2 weeks over there.

Phage therapy of staphylococcal infections (including MRSA) may be less expensive than antibiotic treatment

"We now present data showing that efficient phage therapy of staphylococcal infections is no longer a treatment of last resort (when all antibiotics fail), but allows for significant savings in the costs of healthcare."

Three years on, I have been looking again at my Churchill Fellows Report of 2007 - The Health Value Of Bacteriophages , in the context of offering hope and relief for families of autism sufferers. I include those who are concerned about the adverse effects of orthodox patented vaccines. Look at these novel applications of phage!

On page 10 I wrote:

"Professor Gorski pointed out that phages can prevent inflammatory diseases of the bowel, and they can improve renal function.....His triumphal point to note, is that because phages are viruses, some have common receptors, in fact they may neatly block harmful viruses (like adenoviruses... and the Herpes virus). New therapeutic treatments or preventatives for a range of viral infections would be a novel application of bacteriophages!"








These fever blisters are associated with the Herpes virus and a lowered immune system. Phages have been shown to help.
Photo Credit: CDC







It turns out that such applications are not even so novel.  Until the 1990s, general practitioners in the USA were prescribing Staphage Lysate with much success - but the FDA moved the proverbial BigPharma goalposts and SPL became no longer permissible for human use.

Author and mother of an autistic son, Mary Ann Puckett, reassures us in her heartwarming book 'Take him home and love him' , about various infections and especially herpes.

"I spoke with one of the research scientists at the laboratory who told me that their studies on Staphage Lysate had found it not only helped to boost the immune system but had also proven to work very well in controlling the outbreak of herpes, or fever blisters."

Dr VJ Conrad MD, in her review, commented that "The love and determination shown by Mary Ann Puckett in not only the day-to-day care of her son Stephen, but in her quest for information to help him, is nothing less than extraordinary."

Now I wonder if the same method could be used to reduce HPV viral infections, saving all the need for HPV vaccines and their inherent side effects and numerous reported deaths. It is sad to read that now a 10 year old New Jersey boy has died 8 days after his HPV shot, and yet, I understand that no clinical trials were ever done on boys or grown men.

So by taking up this suggestion of further potential with phage in blocking harmful viruses, it could help restore public confidence in the true motives of the 'system'. It would save an enormous amount of taxpayers' money and save a lot of human misery. If the big drugs companies therefore lose out on sales, so be it - they failed to heed the warnings. 

Here is a gloriously snooty comment I received from MHRA Pharmacovigilance about therapeutic phage, at the start of my Winston Churchill Fellowship project in May 2007:


"At present, however, we are not aware of the need to draw on this knowledge."

Daily Mail (London, England), The, Sept 21, 2010

I like this piece of news in press, not published yet. In my opinion it has a lot of potential. Here, spiced-up phages worked with total success on baby spinach and baby lettuce to destroy life-threatening gastro-enteritis bacteria. What about baby other things?

The spice they are using is cinnamon.

Reduction of Escherichia coli O157:H7 Viability on Leafy Green ...
Bacteriophage therapy and prophylaxis: 430 rediscovery and renewed assessment of potential. Trends Microbiol. 5, 268-271. 431 Baskaran, S. A., Amalaradjou, ...
linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0740002010002455

The new scientific paper of this name arrived on my computer this morning and it's super to see how much has been achieved in the three years since my travels on a Churchill Fellowship.

The abstract does make a rather sweeping claim:

"Hence, there has been a resurgence of interest in bacteriophage applications, and this has encouraged the emergence of a large number of biotech companies hoping to commercialize their use."

How large is a large number, I muse! I cannot see any evidence of a large number of biotech companies in the main text and I wonder if it was wishful thinking or time-travelling perhaps?

Now, there is one small point I would like to make and it is about international diplomacy.

Commercial phage-based products are named here in this scientific paper specifically; academic references and authors are named specifically; various bacteria and phages are named specifically; the following countries,states and even towns are named specifically:

USA
Assam, India
France
Germany
United Kingdom
Brazil
Switzerland
Lubbock, Texas
Bangladesh
Korea
Netherlands
Ipswich, UK

Yet there are at least two countries that do deserve at least the courtesy of being named specifically. I have been told very quietly by a senior phage scientist that it is rather hurtful to be dismissed in academic literature as being in the "former Soviet bloc" or just "Eastern Europe", when instead, the specific countries of Georgia, Poland and others have been making use of and producing commercial phage-based products for donkeys' years - well, a large number of years anyway. 

Ho hum.

11^th September 2010

All the local children were back at school this week, looking spick and span in their bright blue and navy uniforms. By Tuesday lunchtime I had received a telephone call from Karen - a mum in Horsham, Sussex.  Her daughter had been given a consent form and leaflet about the Year 8 Cervarix HPV vaccination programme and was being expected to get it signed and returned by Friday!

Fortunately Karen had been researching it on the internet and she found me speaking on a YouTube video on the subject. This dated back to September 2008 when I was first alerted to these new vaccines and had a letter published in the newspaper.

Karen and I took the time to have a really long chat and she told me that the current NHS leaflet just casually says that the side effects are "quite mild".  All quite mild? Quite Mild? Really? One of the girls in my home town of Reigate, Surrey is still very ill indeed with chronic fatigue syndrome after her 3 Cervarix jabs in 2008-9, and she has spent months in a Critical Care Unit in a specialist London hospital. It is going to take years for her to get well again and by then she will have missed out on the rest of her schooling. Several other girls have posted comments onto the NHS Choices website about their experiences, and one of them, a 19 year old, is disabled now with rheumatoid arthritis after her jabs. One of the mums writing on that site actually stated that "this injection has ruined my daughter's life": see for yourself.   There are at least ten girls whose files are sitting on a lawyer's desk, with a collective case pending against the manufacturers GSK. In 2009 I was contacted by a family whose 18 year old daughter had actually crashed her car straight after her one and only Cervarix jab. She is lucky to be alive after passing out at the wheel on her way home from the GP surgery. It is lucky that the car didn't kill anyone as it turned a double somersault. The crash was right outside the gates of a primary school not long after home time, and her car was a write-off. Now, for such a catastrophic event, it is rather strange that it wasn't featured in any newspapers or TV News, isn't it? The Police, the local Bridgend MP and even the Department of Transport certainly knew about it though.

So on the phone with Karen, I explained to her that if young girls are being led to believe that the only side effects are quite mild and that more serious side effects are "extremely rare" and "the nurses know how to deal with them" then clearly that information is false and misleading. Interestingly I had just heard a few days previously that this could be an offence, contrary to the Medicines Act of 1968 (Section 93, to be precise). Even in the first year, 2008-9, the Department of Health had spent £2.8 million on advertising the HPV vaccine programme. Almost two whole years ago I had established that 50,000 printed copies of a 2008 publication had whopping great statistical errors in the paragraph about vaccine side effects, and the Department of Health had to correct the facts after that. There's my Freedom of Information evidence that the published information was untrue, and later an apology letter from the former Minister for Public Health.

My long phone chat with Karen was also an opportunity to share a bit of simple science! It is public knowledge that both the HPV vaccines, Cervarix and Gardasil, contain aluminium. Don't be fooled - the school leaflets only mention what Cervarix doesn't contain. Many people are yet to realise that aluminium is a neurotoxin, in other words a nerve poison, and as many as 1 in 100 are hypersensitive to it. I have pointed this out on NHS Choices this week but it was immediately censored, so I shall refer you to a scientific paper where you can quietly read about their cautionary note in the conclusion:

A role for the body burden of aluminium in vaccine-associated macrophagic myofasciitis and chronic fatigue syndrome...
by Christopher Exley et al, 2008

Also I can refer you to an excellent page of factual information from the European Medicines Agency. It includes Side-effects, Warnings and Ingredients.

Now, the bit of science which is a rather nice surprise, is that there is a chemical antidote to aluminium. Yes!  It is called silica, and you will find it in several good quality mineral waters such as Volvic and Evian.

"DUW DUW!" - as a Welsh mining engineer might say on making a tiny discovery of pure gold!  Well I never! In all my years of studying and teaching science, I never knew about that chemical antidote until 2009, when I got in touch with the aluminium scientists at my almer mater, Keele University. And now it doesn't take a genius to work out how the side effects of aluminium poisoning can be reduced - in fact, almost anyone in Year 8 could be expected to work that out for themselves.

Oh, and back to that Cervarix consent form in Horsham, Sussex.  If you decide, after careful consideration, that you do not want to give your consent to three injections containing nerve poison, you may be invited to give your reasons on the back of the form. If you write them down together in advance, then it is easier for your daughter to stand up to peer pressure and stick to her principles with adult pressure too. Here are a few suggestions from me, and number 5 is my favourite:
 
1.  We have read the NHS instructions that “Any side effects following the HPV vaccination should be reported to the school nurse or your GP.”              
 
2. We have read the Side Effects on www.medicines.org.uk/guides/cervarix.                                    
              
 3. We have read the Warnings on www.medicines.org.uk/guides/cervarix.
                
 4. We have read the Ingredients on  www.medicines.org.uk/guides/cervarix           
 and we see that Cervarix contains aluminium.
   
  5. We have read reports that there are other ways of preventing cervical cancer.

Now I don't want to hear any reports of girls being bullied into getting this jab if they have already decided they don't want it. My list of those 5 suggestions could be used as a discussion group or homework resource. Toodle pip!     

          
Comments:

Love it

12 September 2010 at 13:52, Sydney, Australia

Thank God for you Grace and the work you do to get the truth out.

12 September 2010 at 19:19, Oklahoma, USA

I am, we are, happy to promote the potential dangers of the vaccine and the lack of care and information that is provided to "patients".

16 September 2010 at 10.21, Bridgend, Wales


would you like me to share your blog on my facebook? happy to do so :)


16 September 2010 at 15.08, Merstham, Surrey                                                                               

Mass-injections

16 September 2010

Girls, further to my "Welcome to Year 8" I think I had better add some new information since you are entitled to know.

Manufacturers GSK have added lymphadenopathy to their list of adverse reactions with Cervarix HPV vaccine - which is a disease of the lymph nodes (swollen, enlarged lymph nodes and can be due to infection, autoimmune disease or malignancy*.)  The official letter was dated 2nd September 2010 and it took a couple of weeks to hit Google Alerts news service.

Think about it, and do get in touch if you would like to know more. 

from The Record of Reigate Park Church, September 2010:

It is over fifty years now since our family, the Wards, moved to Reigate. Our childhood Bible stories included those old favourites, the Ladybird books with their colourful dust wrappers, cardboard covers and a standard price of two shillings and sixpence.

Who could forget the wonderfully inspiring story of ’Naaman and the Little Maid’? Naaman was a greatly respected army general – a national hero of Syria who became blighted by a dreaded skin disease, leprosy. Today’s microbiologists know it is associated with a specific range of pathogenic bacteria but at the time, there was no cure and people of any position in society would have to face becoming social outcasts as a result.  Happily in those Old Testament days, a young captive servant girl – a little maid - knew that there was a prophet in her homeland of Samaria in Israel who could provide a cure. That would have been stunning news for Naaman’s wife to pass on to her husband!

The story tells us about a variety of people who got involved from then on - such as the King of Syria who was, after all, Naaman’s employer. In his high-ranking position he decided the thing to do was to write personally to the nighbouring King of Israel introducing Naaman, sending plenty of silver, gold and clothing and asking him for a cure.  Oh dear, no – that was not the answer. The King of Israel became very upset and offended by this direct request since it was beyond his power! It wasn’t until the prophet Elisha got to hear about this that he himself contacted the King of Israel, suggesting that the foreign general should visit him instead. He was volunteering his services as a prophet of God.

So Naaman was getting nearer to a possible cure. Off he went on his chariot, with all his wealth and entourage to Elisha’s humble abode, full of great expectations of what would happen to bring about his recovery. Instead he had a humbling experience himself when Elisha merely sent out a message – he didn’t greet him personally. The instructions were so plain and simple! “Go and wash in the River Jordan seven times.”

Well, what a comedown for a great man – to climb down off his high horse and repeatedly have to bathe all his diseased flesh in such a muddy old river. His first reaction was to be angry: after all, why that particular river, when the river waters in his homeland were much fresher?

Again, it was a servant who intercepted with a few calm, caring words of encouragement that Naaman should at least try this incredibly basic method. What did Naaman have to lose except a bit of pride, and yet potentially he would regain his health, clear skin and his dignity in society again?

Yes, it worked.  After Naaman dipped himself seven times into the River Jordan, his flesh did become clean. What a transformation after repeated exposure to that muddy water!  He returned to meet Elisha and offer him a gift of thanks but yet again, to his great surprise, it was to be refused. Perhaps Elisha wanted to emphasise that the blessings are from God, not human beings and they are free to all who will accept them in true humility and good faith.

I had forgotten the very last part of this remarkable story which shows a refreshing attitude and perhaps a hint of scientific fact. Naaman asked for permission to take two mule-loads of the Jordan soil back home. Why would he have done that? We are not told in the Bible nor in the Ladybird children’s version. It might have been because he felt that Israel's God had to be worshipped on Israel's soil. But in the light of my research overseas in 2007 studying “the health value of bacteriophages”, I wonder whether he intuitively realised that God’s earth itself offers simple antidotes to infections. As we say with a smile these days, “The answer lies in the soil!” Those ultramicroscopic bacteriophages – a huge group of literally, “bacteria-eaters” were identified by microbiologists only about 100 years ago but they abound in rivers, mud, soil, sewage and seawater.

As UNICEF rightly make the news in Manhattan this week with an awareness raising project, the words MALARIA, CHOLERA, TYPHOID, DENGUE, HEPATITIS, DYSENTERY, SALMONELLA and YELLOW FEVER take on a starring role amongst the New York public. They are fundraising to provide clean water and prevent infection in disaster areas - a dollar at a time.

Dysentery, for example, (bloody diarrhoea) can be either amoebic or bacillary in origin. Historically it was a major cause of death in the ill-fated Gallipolli campaign in the Dardanelles during WW1. This is one of the most significant points in my new book chapter because bacteriophages were just being discovered. With a bit more research and time, bacterial dysentery could have been prevented and treatable, as it was by 1919, in Paris, and then applied on a large scale in some cities such as Alaxandria by WW2. I wonder if you'd like to see an article published 13.6.1942 in the British Medical Journal? It provides statistical evidence in English that bacteriophages do work and I think it needs flagging up yet again. The article is online at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2162222/.
If only Winston Churchill had known about it!! The same science would have prevented cholera and the septicaemia from insect bites too and is just as relevant today evidently. 

This is the summary and conclusions - dating back to 1942:

"The analysis of the official dysentery statistics

for Egypt indicates that Alexandria occupies a

much more favourable position in case mortality

from dysentery than anywhere else in Egypt.

This cannot be due to the better treatment of amoebic

dysentery, for that is uniform and standardized

throughout the country; nor is it due to geographical

or climatic factors, for the typhoid case-mortality

rate for Alexandria and for Cairo has not appreciably

changed. The conclusion reached is that the cause

of Alexandria's favourable position is the use of

The statistical evidence, whether convincing or not

to the statistically minded, is only part of the case;

a much more convincing part is clinical observation,

which shows the favourable effect of phage

preparations administered early in dysenteriform

conditions of a bacillary nature."

Naturally the British Medical Journal 68 years ago didn't use brilliant colours to highlight those main points, but really in my opinion they did need livening up to get anyone to take any notice, just like the Manhattan dirty water vending machine but cheaper.

Ref: Bacteriophage Treatment of Bacillary Dysentery by Arthur Compton

Welcome to a new weekly blog - a service by the US-based company, Intralytix. They have already picked up on my information about Godstone Farm and E coli 0157 and have straight away written a news piece to help let people know that phages could help.

http://phagesolutions.blogspot.com

Our much-loved local Godstone Farm is in the news this week because of the publication of the Griffin Investigation report - over 250 pages.



















As a result, I have sent off this comment and enquiry to the Health Protection Agency whose CEO commissioned it.

The new Griffin Report about the E coli 0157 outbreak makes no mention of the antimicrobial powers of (1) UV/natural sunlight (2) copper/brass or (3) specific therapeutic and preventative phages as used in the FSU, Poland, USA etc.. This well-proven science has been overlooked but could be so easily applied and communicated for public safety and education. My correspondence with the HPA, Defra and DoH over 5 years and my Churchill Fellows Report 2007 have apparently not been enough to prevent outbreaks in the UK.

So I am writing to let you know that I visited Godstone Farm personally today to give them the message. I also said that I shall be at the SfAM conference in Brighton on 6 July where bacteriophages are the topic; HPA staff will be there. Please contact me in advance.
Refs: 1."The USDA/FSIS has also approved the bacteriophage treatment of livestock hides with E coli O157:H7", p.771 of a review I co-authored:
Current Opinion in Investigational Drugs 2009 10(8):766-774
Bacteriophage therapy for the treatment of infections
A Górski, R Międzybrodzki, J Borysowski, B Weber-Dąbrowska, M Łobocka, W Fortuna, S Letkiewicz, M Zimecki & G Filby
2. Jan02, 2007 “Bacteria Control Now Available for Use on Live Animals”
3. My blog http://www.amazingphage.info/page6.htm

You may remember that I have written before about a young man named Stephen Puckett. When he was about 9 years old his doctor was able to give him SPL (Staph Phage Lysate) which helped his symptoms hugely.  Sadly the FDA moved the regulatory goalposts and this medicine is currently only available for dogs.

His mother Mary Ann Puckett has kept in contact with me over the last year and I was distressed to hear this week, that he is in jail, having been denied treatment at any of the hospitals in Oklahoma City. Here is the news item. Please share it to raise awareness.

Notes: Chapter 11 - Big Germs Have Little Germs. This is about the great variety of viruses that attack and destroy bacteria, known as bacteriophages or phage. It describes the discoveries of UK Professor F W Twort of London University and French-Canadian Dr Felix d'Herelle of the Pasteur Institute, and the following research between the two World Wars. At the time of this book's publication in the mid 50s, bacteriophages were being used in India, Egypt and Russia (USSR) against dysentery and plague, and in India for cholera. The author pointed out that with bacteria becoming resistant to modern drugs, bacteriophage research would be likely to increase.

Chapter 14 - Inside the Virus. This is about the use of phage as a valuable tool for scientific study of viruses and nucleic acid (DNA).

Chapter 16 - The Virus Multiplies. This chapter about virus reproduction is based very much on the study of bacteriophages, including the work done by A D Hershey and M W Chase at the Carnegie Institution, A H Doermann at Cold Spring Harbour and others.

Chapter 18 - Can We Protect Ourselves? The last chapter ends with a tribute and words of encouragement to the virus researchers often working on university budgets.

The 17 b&w illustrations include electron micrographs of viruses and bacteriophages.

First sentence: 'Science is carrying us into the future with bewildering speed.'

A non-technical, popular science account of what was known about viruses by the mid 1950s. Recommended as useful to teachers, students and sixth-form pupils.

Table of contents

1	The Invisible Germ		9
2	Smallpox and Vaccination		20
3	The Second Success - Yellow Fever		30
4	Influenza		41
5	Poliomyelitis - the Modern Plague		52
6	Protection against Polio		61
7	The Common Cold		73
8	Other Virus Diseases of Man		85
9	Viruses and Animals		95
10	Insects Suffer Too		108
11	Big Germs Have Little Germs		120
12	The Persecution of Plants		132
13	All Shapes and Sizes		147
14	Inside the Virus		158
15	A Way through the Wall		166
16	The Virus Multiplies		176
17	Chemicals that Live		187
18	Can We Protect Ourselves?		198
	Index		207

30 years ago I was a new mum, blessed with a healthy baby. In those days the rate of autism was pretty low but times have changed. Despite all sorts of advances in modern medicine there are alarming numbers of children developing neurological disorders, bowel disorders and so on.

It was heartening recently to learn that an autistic boy in the USA was helped hugely by phage medicine in the early 90s and I have referred to this good news before now.¹ Although that specific product is not currently available for human use, at least we know that there are doctors with expertise in phage in countries such as Georgia and Poland.

Regarding the causes of autism, though - or even the risks, I was astonished to read a Rapid Review comment posted on the British Medical Journal site in 2003: 'Immediate Umbilical Cord Clamping as a Cause of Autism'. Darwin had actually predicted it and left instructions for its prevention and its correction!²

Having checked with the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, I see that in May 2009 they published an Opinion Paper discussing Deferred Clamping compared with Immediate Clamping.³ To quote:

"Infants who have immediate cord clamping have lower iron stores for up to 6 months after birth. The potential implications of the reduced iron status in early childhood have not been adequately investigated. Iron deficiency in the first few months of life is associated with neurodevelopmental delay, which may be irreversible."

Apparently, for decades immediate clamping has become common practice especially in the UK, yet without rigorous evaluation. It could be harmful to your baby if the cord is clamped and cut before the placental blood supply has had a chance to finish pulsing. It sounds to me that a research project ought to be instigated straight away and meanwhile I suggest that new mums and dads just take a look at that Opinion Paper in good time before the happy event. 

The process of birth is stressful enough, sometimes even traumatic if there are complications, but then if a newborn is denied its rightful supply of oxygen and iron, even for half a minute or so, it is hardly surprising that additional stressors like medication and vaccines can overload the system - sometimes irreversibly. 

I hope someone will pick up on this and err on the side of caution, working with nature and not against it. It would be awful if the autism statistics continue to rise when these tragedies might be prevented so easily.

While I am on the subject of autism, neurological damage and stress prevention, I would like to thank Dr. F. Edward Yazbak, a pediatrician in Falmouth, Massachusetts. He is the grandfather of a boy with regressive autism, and has contributed some very valuable e-letters to the British Medical Journal about the Royal Free Hospital study.

For the sake of completeness I would like to quote an important observation that Dr Yazbak made on 9th March, plus a piece of advice that I happen to agree with, for the Sunday Times journalist Brian Deer. For some strange reason it was allowed to be "doctored" following a legal complaint.⁴

"I must say that I am troubled that Mr. Deer was able to obtain the names and family backgrounds of the 12 original study patients. I am also surprised that he finds it fair to censor my defense of Dr. Wakefield after he subjected him to public flagellation for so long. Maybe it is time for Mr. Deer to take a deep breath and relax."⁵

As any of my former pupils and colleagues might recall, there are three things that I cannot abide. These are
(1) lack of respect for confidentiality,
(2) unfair censorship and
(3) bullying⁶.




^{References:
1.} Take him home and love him - A story of autism and how to cope with it, Mary Ann Puckett, pp.27-30, 2005
http://www.autismreality.com
^2. Immediate Umbilical Cord Clamping as a Cause of Autism, George M. Morley MB ChB FACOG, 2003
http://www.whale.to/a/morley6.html
^3. Clamping of the Umbilical Cord and Placental Transfusion, Scientific Advisory Committee Opinion Paper 14, May 2009 http://www.rcog.org.uk/clamping-umbilical-cord-and-placental-transfusion
^4. Rapid Responses to Trisha Greenhalgh: What took the Lancet so long? Response to Mr Deer's remarks, 9 March 2010 http://www.bmj.com/cgi/eletters/340/feb02_4/c644
^5. Ibid - pre - 24 March 2010, and Purged BMJ thread 25 March 2010
http://www.whale.to/vaccine/Purged%20BMJ%20thread%2025%20March%202010.pdf
^6. Equal Treatment Bench Book, Judicial Studies Board, Revisions March 2004

Please note that there is no reference in this article to MMR vaccine.

Over the last few weeks I was writing a book chapter on "Women who thawed the Cold War". Just as there was an Iron Curtain drawn across Europe from 1945 for nearly half a century, I focused the second half of the story on the wonderfully dedicated, determined women at the Eliava Institute in Tbilisi, Georgia. They not only continued with bacteriophage science and medicine despite the murder of their gifted founder, Professor George Eliava, but built up the research and manufacture over those years to a scale where they exported tons of therapeutic and prophylactic phage products all over the Soviet Union for the good of the people.

True to life, rather than just science, you'd find high political drama and even some romantic threads in this story.

With the current economic recession it could be many months or even years before it is published. However, the British Ministry of Defence know of its existence and as usual, I'm hoping for the best.

Meanwhile here's a world map showing the USSR during the Cold War era - 1970.  Georgia wasn't given its proper name at that time but the capital city is unmistakable - Tbilisi.




















Photo: Grace Filby reveals the location of Georgia on a Cold War map at Reigate Priory Junior School, March 2010.

Yesterday I posted my feedback to the Science Museum on the gallery "The Science and Art of Medicine": 
I notice that this exhibition is funded by the Wellcome Trust. It is only natural to assume that (1) a pioneering 20th Century British microbiologist has been excluded along with pioneering bacteriophage medicine and (2) historic photographic evidence of the downside of vaccines is even removed with no explanation or apology. This is a bit sinister.

Since there was inadequate space on the feedback form to add my further comments, here they are.

There was a tableau of microbiologists investigating bacteria where the labcoats were absolutely disgusting - deliberately depicted like that. What a terrible advert for microbiology in the UK - nothing like Georgia, Poland or the USA, nor Keele University Microbiology Department in the 1970s, nor the schools where I taught, where labcoats were meticulously clean and bright white.

What gets my prize for bad taste? A DRUG CASTLE, no less. Note the 50 pence coins littering the floor.




















The Adverse Drug Reaction Bulletin behind it dating back to 1980 states:
"Adverse effects from drug therapy are thought to affect between 10 - 16 % of patients admitted to hospital and may account for 1 in 40 consultations in general practice."

Don't forget, this stuff is what pollutes our water system and ends up poisoning the food chain.

At long last I have managed to find a bacteriophage in a museum in London. No, it wasn't the Natural History Museum - I did look there to see whether viruses were included in the Earth Hall regarding the origins of life. Oops, no, not even mentioned.

So I went next door to the Science Museum in Exhibition Road, to see if, this time, there were any updates since my last visit a few years ago.

My feedback form:

                          "Congratulations on your Centenary but you are doing nothing to celebrate the discovery of bacteriophages during that time by F W Twort FRS in 1915 and F. d'Herelle in 1917. At last I have found a diagram of one, in your crazy room about 'Health Matters' on Level 3 as part of a mural but really the annoying music and repetitive commentary are enough to prevent any learning or study at that point.
Again the Science and Art of Medicine on Levels 4 and 5 fail to mention phage typing, virology, phage therapy in World War 2 and the Cold War or display any vials.
N.B. There is a display item missing - an old leaflet about the dangers and side effects of vaccines."

Here is one of my photos, annotated. If you are planning to make use of this photo on the internet or in a presentation, I advise you to accredit it to me, Grace Filby, copyright 2010, and make a suitable donation to a children's hospice as payment.


              

Title of publication: A Literature Review of the Practical Application of Bacteriophage Research

Author: Nina Chanishvili


Editor: Richard Sharp, UK Health Protection Agency

Contributors: Nina Chanishvili, Teimuraz Chanishvili, Marina Tediashvili, Goderdzishvili, Dali Gogiashvili, Yana Malkhazova, Nana Khurtsia

Publisher: Eliava Institute of Bacteriophage, Microbiology & Virology, Tbilisi, Georgia (email: n_chanish.ibmv@caucasus.net)

Date of publication: December 2009

Number of pages: 184

_____________________________________________________________

Although I had offered to become involved in this UK Global Threat Reduction Programme project and suggested that I could clarify outstanding issues and help with the nuances of the language translation, the Ministry of Defence in London declined this for contractual reasons, adding: “In any case, we are content that we have sufficient scientific and linguistic expertise within the Department to manage the workload”.

Well, it is a shame that Her Majesty’s government and the editor didn’t take more care over the proofreading, considering this G8-funded priority project was under their supervision and it was bound to become a valuable historic document. It is a long-awaited positive outcome of the Cold War from the Eliava Institute in the Republic of Georgia. Some of the typographical errors and mis-spellings are actually rather charming and even funny, but being a serious scientific volume of 184 pages closely printed, it takes a while to find them. Poor old Professor Twort FRS. Yet again, he would have felt let down by British officialdom for not noticing the need to anglicize the spelling of his Christian name, Frederick, in Chapter 16. I do hope that further editions will put this right as a mark of respect to this noble and brave pioneering scientist.

There is no need for me to comment on the quality of the scientific content, although I do still wonder whether there was any old literature on the use of phages in dentistry. I know there is a lot of potential in this area, confirmed by enlightened dentists in the UK and USA.  On the subject of chapter headings, it was a bit confusing to read that information in traumatology may be found in the chapters “Phages in Surgery” and “Intravenous Bacteriophage” when the latter doesn’t exist in this published version. The historical note about the execution of George Eliava is not half as interesting as the romantic story I was told in Georgia.

That said, the subject matter is presented steadily throughout. The contributors are to be congratulated for having accomplished this massive task, fulfilling the dreams of the late Professor Teimuraz Chanishvili, to whose memory the report is dedicated.

There is a case study on page 25, dating back precisely seventy years that caught my attention. It goes back to the beginning of World War 2 in Russia. A soldier had received multiple wounds from a mine explosion. I will spare you the gory details but after surgery and a whole month in hospital, his condition was serious, his septic wounds being infected with Streptococcus. During that time he became delirious for two weeks. Several different treatments were having no curative effect. Then when eventually the doctor applied phage, that very night, the patient managed to sleep. The next day, the case history reports, his condition was “joyful”. Same again, the next day. “Joyful”. After another two weeks he was released from hospital! I wonder what happened to him in the next five years of wartime.

There is a similarity here with a reported dramatic recovery in 1961 in the Western world. Internationally famous actress Elizabeth Taylor was cured from staphylococcal pneumonia overnight, when the previous day phages had been applied.  Despite considerable published evidence from the USA, the role of phages in this medical turnaround has been staunchly dismissed by several top-drawer British individuals for dubious reasons, not least, even “the word on the street”.

The Eliava report gently and firmly makes the point that large numbers of Red Army soldiers received phages gladly, compared to their less fortunate comrades who were not prescribed it. The soldiers were actually requesting it. The 1941 wartime researcher concluded that the need for large scale surgery was therefore reduced and there was less infection, less pain, less moving around of the patients, less days in hospital, hence back on “active service” far sooner. Please note that a reminder of the considerable economic savings in 21^st century bold financial terms was also published, in English. That significant research was by the Polish phage therapy team as recently as 2008.

The glossary is a real treasure for those of us that are not medically trained. It is like a foreign language in itself with so many syllables, ghastly spelling challenges and fifteen different words ending in “-itis”. Oh, what a delight to see the word “Borjomi”. Just to explain, this is the home of a mineral water factory in the beautiful mountainous countryside. It provided the huge fortune of Grand Duke Michael of Russia, a cousin of the Czar who banished him from the Empire, for marrying beneath his station. So he spent his time in the lap of luxury in Cannes and elsewhere. He was a great friend of King Edward VII, occasionally staying here in Reigate and Polesden Lacey at grand house parties, whilst renting Keele Hall in Staffordshire every summer for ten years. Both his daughters married into our British aristocracy, with descendants in the Royal family. So it is also rather grand that the Borjomi mineral water bottled in Georgia since 1876, is described in this new report as being well known for its healing effect in Russia and the Former Soviet Union.

Visually, it is a pleasure to see such clear data tables, painstakingly quantifying the patients and their details. Likewise it is a refreshing change to see colour photographs of all seven Georgian contributors alongside their professional and linguistic achievements and qualifications. However, again a publishing point, the colour reproduction quality could be upgraded to do justice to their features. Overall their professional experience spans 65 years and note that six of the seven contributors are female. They are modest regarding their multi-lingual abilities since whereas between them, they speak Russian, English, French and Italian, the rest of the world might need it pointed out that these are their additional learned languages. Georgians, in fact, have not only a language of their own, but also their own unique alphabet.

Near the end of the report is an intriguing account of a laboratory experiment in a plastic box to study phages as disinfectants. Good gracious!  The mathematics is way over my head but someone needs to look at that urgently for potential in our Western hospitals where the air is not noted for its freshness and even the windows are not designed to open. Again, the contributors have thoughtfully included three colour photographs as illustrations but once more, the colour printing could be upgraded.

Perhaps the width of type across the page is too great. A wider margin would make the whole production easier to read for tired eyes like mine, especially if the reader is reluctant to take on board a whole new approach to medicine compared with conventional Western practice. This would no doubt involve more paper and production costs but it would make the book easier to read.

I trust this book will become a veritable mine of information for scientists and physicians around the world, and for the general public if they can get hold of a copy. There is one inevitability in life – death. So if we are offered a ‘gift on a plate’ of a way of healing bacterial infections – indeed, preventing bacterial infections too, then we might as well embrace it and read the book from cover to cover if we can.

This literature review is one of those books which is a real “first”. It is a privilege to have received an early copy. Some of my comments from first impressions about the production process may appear to be hard criticism for some, but I think, the responsibility to point out these oversights falls to me, being free of restrictions from employers and financial pressures to keep quiet.

Grace Filby BA(Hons) Cert Ed FRSA
Reigate, UK                                                                                           January 2010

The Nature Of Things -
 


The Nature Of Phage - 




MORE GOOD NEWS:
Holiday Greetings, 21 Dec 09: "I am thrilled to relay that I now have 12 months infection free!"; "My arm is stronger than ever"; "it is still attached and for that I'm deeply grateful" "Such a relief as you can imagine".



 





Patient's MRSA-infected arm before contacting independent UK researcher and Churchill  Fellow,Grace Filby at www.amazingphage.info in August 08.



 



Patient's elbow in January 2009 after phage therapy in Texas, USA.
How's about that, then, Wellcome Trust?

The long-awaited Priority G-8 funded Eliava Bacteriophage Report is now printed, according to my source at the Ministry of Defence.

More info available soon. "I understand that the Institute will release copies of the report in return for a donation to the Institute of 80 Euros per copy plus postage/courier costs."

Page 137: "He begged Blackstone to find a certain serum in the United States to replace the impotent antibiotics Elizabeth was taking. Within hours Blackstone had located the drug - Staphage Lysate - which was available only from an American medical laboratory. He arranged with the hospital to fly the medicine to London, saving precious time by skipping customs. The hospital stated that an ambulance would be waiting for him at the airport if Elizabeth was still alive."

It cost me only 1 penny on the internet - a secondhand biography of Elizabeth Taylor which I quote here with just a few words for the public good as "fair use".  Kitty Kelley, can be relied upon - she was the author of Jackie Oh! and press secretary to McCarthy.

She continues the account of Elizabeth going through a healing crisis. Her husband Eddie was at her side for four days and four nights, her mother read a Christian Science book to her through one night, she was aided by an iron lung - and the next day she was out of danger. This of course, was after Staphage Lysate had been administered.

Unlike the C.David Heymann biography of Liz Taylor that I blogged about earlier this year, in this book nobody is actually crediting the scientists who make Staphage Lysate for her dramatic recovery (accrediting it to Christian Science and her husband's loving care), however it does describe the antibiotics as IMPOTENT.

The latest 'antibiotic of the day' was methicillin. Hence the term - MRSA - Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus.

Anyway this is further evidence that phages were definitely applied and her life was saved, even if they didn't get credited in this Kitty Kelley biography. It is rather a shame that nowadays, Staphage Lysate is only licensed for dogs. If I were Elizabeth Taylor, I would have made a fuss, but maybe she has a secret supply.

High profile author Kitty Kelley must have been sure of her sources by describing those antibiotics as "impotent" in this case, otherwise those BigPharma manfacturers would have sued her and her publishers for damages by now! The book I have (for 1p) was published in 1981 by Book Club Associates by arrangement with Michael Joseph Ltd.

How good is your imagination?

Division M of the American Society of Microbiology mention this about BACTERIOPHAGES: "If you were to gather them all up and weigh them, they WOULD OUTWEIGH THE WORLD POPULATION OF ELEPHANTS BY A THOUSAND FOLD OR MORE."

http://www.asm.org/division/M/M.html

And they hold the secrets of life itself!
So they are never talked about or displayed in any British or American science museums.

This week was a complete change - a conference at Churchill College, Cambridge on The Cold War and its Legacy. 

 It is odd about 2 key locations they identified - recognise them?

1) Gori/Tbilisi. The Georgian War of 2008  was described by the BBC diplomatic correspondent Bridget Kendall as "one symptom of unfinished business" of the Cold War.

As we know, the focus of the bombing and shooting was in Gori - precisely the new Georgian Military Hospital led by Georgia's pioneering surgeon Dr Gvasalia through the use of phages. This is where he trains other physicians in the use of phage and this is sponsored by the international Phage Biotics Foundation at the instigation of Professor Betty Kutter of Evergreen State College, WA.

2) Wroclaw & Poland.
The final battle of WW2 was in Wroclaw May 8 1945. It is the biggest country in Europe and Poland lost 1/5 of their population. Former US Ambassador to Poland the Hon Victor Ashe said that WW2 and the Cold War are both alive and well in Poland today - and yet "its geographic location is a great economic opportunity". I would agree with that.

Isn't it odd that these 2 political hotspots are exactly where phage therapy is offered to the world to soothe wounds, whether it is for military or civilian use, regardless of nationality?

The previous day there was a very interesting discussion about the Technology of the Cold War. Each of the panellists was asked to propose a technological advance that had come about as a result of the Cold War. There
were the obvious proposals - the H bomb, nuclear weapons, plutonium, radar, Trident missiles.  Eventually in the question session, Sir John Boyd who is a former Master of Churchill College, pointed out that no-one had mentioned cell biology and biotechnology!

 Then Sir Graham Farmelo (historian) agreed: "we have seriously underestimated molecular biology".

Much to my amazement, there was then a question from Dr Robert Bud - the curator of the Science Museum, with whom I had corresponded about phage therapy but then gave up trying to get my point across because he still believed that one article in the New York Times had more credibility than a number of others in US provincial newspapers or at least two well-referenced biographies of Elizabeth Taylor. Until that moment, I had no idea that Dr Bud had been sitting next door-but-one to me for the last hour and a half!

So I decided not to ask a question myself. However I did note down that in reply, the Hon. Franklin C Miller KBE (Former Pentagon and NDS staff official, now defence consultant) commented on "the power of the press to distort things" - funny, that.

I liked the summing up comment in that discussion from Dr Wagar Zaidi of Imperial College, London, who brought our attention to the power of small technologies working together - in networks.
Isn't that just how it is with molecular biology and phage colleagues internationally?

I am pleased to announce that there is a new review paper at the invitation of the publishers Thomson Reuters. It appears in the journal Current Opinion in Investigational Drugs and is online here: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19649921 .

The authors are Andrzej Górski, Ryszard Miedzybrodzki , Jan Borysowski , Beata Weber-Dabrowska , Malgorzata Lobocka, Wojciech Fortuna, Slawomir Letkiewicz, Michal Zimecki, & Grace Filby.

I had a funny feeling that the orthodox vaccine bandwagon was going to get totally silly and this could be it, the one big expensive scientific gaffe that will blow the whole charade out into the open. The following news has appeared all over the press. Now, don't take its title at face value......


http://www.medicalnewstoday.com:80/articles/154396.php
"Vaccinating Children May Be Effective At Helping Control Spread Of Influenza"
Source: Warwick University

I have submitted the following opinion. Hopefully it will be listened to in academic, government and pharmaceutical circles. If my opinion is not published online as feedback, maybe it's because it is the inconvenient truth! I have also forwarded it by email to
the scientists Professor Matthew Keeling and Dr Thomas House at Warwick University;
their Communications Officer;
the Senior Press Officer at the Wellcome Trust;
the President of the International Coalition of Advocates for the People;
and 2 spokespeople for the National Patient Safety Agency.

Some good news: Professor Andrzej Gorski's team has just won the first prize for the most important innovation in medicine in Poland - introduction of modern-style phage therapy  (organized by a Polish medical journal, with a selection committee of top authorities of Polish medicine).

It is heartbreaking to read about the Puttick family who jumped off Beachy Head together after their little boy Sam died of pneumococcal meningitis. It's caused by a bacterium - Streptococcus pneumoniae which is very resistant to antibiotics.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/devoted-parents-whose-grief-drove-them-to-beachy-head-1695475.html

It looks as if phage therapy is a treatment option for Georgian children - dreadful that British parents are offered no hope and have to go home to watch their child die. It is just tragic.

http://www.phagetherapycenter.com/pii/PatientServlet?command=static_strept

I don't know what else I can do about it. My MP hasn't even acknowledged receipt of my emails recently let alone replied, and the Dept of Health are just as slow to respond too.

Our regional AGM of Churchill Fellows this weekend was on a blisteringly hot afternoon in the shade of the trees beside the lake at Chichester College, (Brinsbury campus). It is a 250-hectare estate and has its own commercial farm with a dairy, beef, sheep, pig and arable enterprise. The ducks were as tame as could be, sitting at our feet as we sipped pomegranate lemonade and enjoyed delicious cakes. I was invited to summarise my Churchill Travelling Fellowship of 2007 on 'the health value of bacteriophages' and developments since then.

My colleagues were so interested that they have urged me to contact HRH Prince Charles. So today I have written and mentioned that it is taking an age to communicate this good news in the UK through standard channels in the face of considerable resistance. We do hope he would be able to offer suggestions and perhaps a few words of support.

It's amazing what you can find out by accident.

It's about some new phage therapy research at the University of Bristol to study the treatment and prevention of C.difficile.

The Ethical Review Group even explained in the minutes of their meeting just what phages are. Naturally, they have approved the application. 

The first item of this Chairman's Report gives the lowdown with the names of the researchers, committee members and Home Office staff now removed but it is extraordinary that I have the original version. Well done. The research will be done on hamsters. They are very susceptible to tummy upsets from antibiotics just like some children and the elderly so I wish the phage researchers every success.

PDF version:
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/10514/response/28844/attach/12/ERG%20Minutes%2020.01.09%20(redacted).doc.pdf

HTML version:
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/10514/response/28844/attach/html/12/ERG%20Minutes%2020.01.09%20(redacted).doc.pdf.html

Kim Davis and her classmates are studying bacterial viruses.
Photo by T. Stephens












At the beginning of her first quarter at UC Santa Cruz, freshman biology student Kimberly Davis collected some soil from the forest floor near Thimann Labs. She then isolated a bacterial virus from the soil, took pictures of it with an electron microscope, extracted the virus's DNA, sent it off for sequencing by the national laboratories' Joint Genome Institute, and is now analyzing the DNA sequence and studying the virus's genes.

It's all part of the Phage Genomics Lab course, in which a select group of students get to dive straight into research, while also taking the usual introductory biology lectures. Davis and her 13 classmates are making real contributions to scientific understanding of the genetic diversity of bacterial viruses (also known as bacteriophages or phages). Ultimately, they plan to publish their findings in a scientific journal.

"It's a really innovative way to learn and a great introduction to science," Davis said. "This is real research, discovering things that people don't already know, and that's really cool."

Bacteriophages are viruses that infect bacteria. They are so widespread that they are thought to kill off a significant fraction of the bacteria on the planet every day, said Grant Hartzog, associate professor of molecular, cell and developmental (MCD) biology. Because of their abundance and diversity, they represent one of the largest reservoirs of genetic diversity on the planet.

"When the students isolate their own virus, they are guaranteed to find something new," Hartzog said.

Students in the class isolated phages from locations all over campus, including the Alan Chadwick Garden, the Arboretum, and the Pogonip. The phage isolated by Davis infects a benign soil bacterium (related to the tuberculosis bacterium, although it does not cause disease). She named it "Little Red Riding Hood" in recognition of its forest origins. It has a large genome for a bacteriophage, consisting of about 150,000 base pairs of DNA that encode more than 200 genes.

"It's been a lot of work. I spent a lot of my free time in the lab, but it's really fun to see the results, and knowing that we'll write a paper about it is very gratifying," Davis said. "I think most of us in the class have decided we want to continue to do scientific research."

Hartzog said the course has clearly succeeded in getting students excited and engaged in their studies. It also prepares students for research in faculty labs and provides concrete examples of many of the principles that they learn in their lecture courses.

"We want to get them involved in research as early as possible in their college careers to enrich the quality of their experience here and give them the best chance for success after they leave," Hartzog said.

The course is funded for three years by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), which is sponsoring similar lab courses at 12 institutions around the country as part of the Science Education Alliance. At UCSC, Hartzog teaches the lab together with Manuel Ares, professor of MCD biology.

"It's a problem-solving class. They have a task to do and they learn by doing," Ares said.

Ares and Hartzog selected the students for the class after inviting applications from incoming freshmen with strong backgrounds in high school biology.

"When you have a curriculum that's designed to serve a very heterogeneous mix of students, the more accomplished students can end up feeling neglected. We have to work harder to keep those students engaged," Ares said. "The way most practicing scientists know facts is by the experiments that prove them, and this course provides an experimental context that is absent from most lecture classes."

The HHMI funding paid for the sequencing of only one phage genome, so Davis was thrilled when hers was chosen. Hartzog subsequently obtained a grant from the California Institute for Quantitative Biosciences (QB3) that paid for the sequencing of all the other phages isolated by the class.

Ares has created a web-based Phage Genome Browser that the students use to analyze the viral DNA sequences. The browser, which provides a variety of tools for studying genome sequences, is based on the widely used UCSC Genome Browser created and maintained by researchers at the Center for Biomolecular Science and Engineering.

"We've learned a lot about sequencing and sequence analysis. It takes awhile to realize how much information there is in the browser," said student Jessica Ruby.

Ares and Hartzog plan to build on their experiences with this course to provide similar opportunities for a larger number of students and faculty.

"The lab may eventually evolve into a series of one-quarter courses that would involve more students," Hartzog said. "We can also create other courses, such as a bioinformatics course that would focus on analyzing the novel sequence data we are acquiring. The idea is to use this as a catalyst to create other fun and interesting teaching and learning opportunities on campus."






This electron microscope image shows the bacteriophage (named "Little Red Riding Hood") that Davis isolated from soil collected from the forest floor. Photo by J. Ilagan, K. Davis and M. Jurica.

It is 80 years, give or take a day or two, since Alexander Fleming's research paper "On the antibacterial action of cultures of a Penicillium" was submitted. Our House of Commons has certainly marked the occasion with a brief debate which you can read here: http://www.theyworkforyou.com/debates/?id=2009-05-11a.657.0, no questions asked.

It features, gold and glorious, a recommendation for bacteriophage therapy!

It was duly replied to by Minister of State for Public Health Dawn Primarolo, so I have posted my comments today as follows. Enjoy.

Grace Filby: If only the Government had played its part in funding the great scientists who discovered bacteriophages. These ultra-microscopic entities which Mr Des Browne was referring to at the very end of his speech, destroy bacteria naturally. I think you will find that the current level of funding of bacteriophage therapy is extremely low (or even non-existent) as a proportion of the public money spent on infection research in the UK. The excellent human research initiatives I am aware of in the UK are privately funded.

Long before the golden age of antibiotics began, a contemporary of Fleming's was Dr F W Twort. Dr Twort had published his pioneering discovery back in December 1915 in The Lancet - nearly 100 years ago. In Twort's historic archives donated by the family to the Wellcome Trust for posterity, there is correspondence showing that bacteriophages were being used successfully for treating bacterial infections e.g. streptococcus viridans in endocarditis in 1931 and many other success stories, some of them on a large scale overseas. There is also correspondence between Fleming and Twort in London over several decades.

Yet, whereas antibiotics were soon receiving masses of media coverage worldwide, there was a neglect and 'cover-up' of bacteriophage science and therapy. Dr Twort's valiant efforts to raise the subject of the need for Government financial support with the Prime Minister, Parliament and the Establishment were thwarted over and over again. This noble doctor, professor, Fellow of the Royal Society and leading British microbiologist died in poverty and despair (1877-1950), his pioneering work and great vision largely ignored and so many opportunities lost. Yet now we know that bacteriophages have many immensely valuable applications in industry and medicine, in the environment and in bio-security - and indeed played a vital role in the discovery of DNA.

To give just one medical example: in 1961, movie star Elizabeth Taylor was given phages for staphylococcal pneumonia; 20 small vials were flown over specially from New York to the London Clinic to save her life. Yet some members of the press and scientific establishment did not publish that part of the story. Fortunately some diligent research in US publications has enabled the writing of a detailed account (see http://www.amazingphage.info).

Now in the 21st century we are only too well aware of the challenges of antibiotic resistance, allergies and the miserable adverse effects of antibiotics (sometimes fatal).

As well as celebrating the 80 years of undoubted achievement with antibiotics, I hope that the Dept of Health will now rise to these remaining challenges which cannot be ignored. Will our Ministers nobly accept their responsibility to put things right, and generously offer to fund British phage science in a spirit of international collaboration?

I hope that the great scientific institutions such as the Science Museum and the Wellcome Trust will now offer to enlighten the public about these opportunities for the future of science and medicine, perhaps as a start, alongside their prominent features on antibiotics. The educational examining boards could simply introduce bacteriophages and phage therapy into the GCSE curriculum. It is such an inspiring subject for science students, history students, art students and even maths students because they are so symmetrical and robotic in their shape yet of immense diversity in nature. As medicine, phages offer real hope to those whose infections have failed to respond to antibiotics.

Besides, research shows that it's much less expensive!

I agree with Mr Browne:

"back to the task by re-examining some of the commercial and regulatory caveats, and develop other mechanisms for disease control such as *bacteriophage* therapy."


But isn't that exactly what I was concluding in my Churchill Fellows Report in October 2007? MAYBE HE READ IT!

“Divide and rule” smirked MRSA,
As he pinched his middle and parted.
“I love my job, I’m the scourge of mankind
By my nature I make flesh black hearted.”

He had bided his time in a comfortable nose
But up there, did not feel fulfilled.
His destiny called - he must flesh out his plan
And seek out a host to be killed.

So he traded the nose for an up market wound -
A fully provisioned domain.
Where he set to consuming this tasteful des-res
With side dishes of fear and of pain.

In a far distant land, a great ocean away
A phage with a mission rehearsed.
In Phage School it learned that divide and rule yields
To: Invade - Multiply - and then BURST!

But the men of the West spurned the wit of the East
Struggled on with their MRSA.
All ego and “letters” they could not admit
That a phage might just win them the day.

Then up spoke a lady - eponymous Grace
Just not taking a “no” for an answer.
She was teacher and warrior - mind with a heart
And in rings round opponents - a dancer.

She set about banging heads lofty and large
Filled with air, rigid views and disdain.
Deceptively vulnerable, Grace worked her will
(Their defeat they could never explain!)

Thus in fullness of time the stuffed shirts gave their ground
They owned to the phage its full due.
And MRSA reached the end of the line;
Filled with phage beyond number - he blew.

copyright © 2006 Barrie Singleton

Any unauthorised broadcasting, public performance, copying or re recording will constitute an infringement of copyright.

Usually the news on this blog is about phage therapy - or sometimes about UV-C technology since I believe the two complement each other (UV-C technology destroys airborne and surface microbes of all sorts - bacteria, viruses and moulds). Both are great ways forward for international security and prevention of bio-terrorism.

I look forward to the day when politicians suddenly realise - Oh! what on earth are these phages? What actually is UV-C? Is there someone out there who can possibly explain the basic ideas in layman's language with simple pictures and without long words? I remember 5 years ago visiting my Member of Parliament Crispin Blunt to mention the word 'phage'. Now that he is Shadow Minister for Security and Counter Terrorism, doubtless the dedicated chapter in the MoD's forthcoming Eliava Report will be on his desk shortly.

However there are other long-term, serious health conditions that concern me, especially when they appear to be actually triggered (or dare I say, possibly 'caused') by orthodox synthetic drugs. 

Mrs Kathleen Gilderdale lives not far away in Sussex. On Thursday April 30th she was in court, charged with attempting to murder her 31year-old daughter after 17 years of suffering from ME after a routine BCG vaccination. She did not make a plea and is supported unconditionally by her family.There are various news reports and to the first of these, I successfully posted a reply. However, as with my entire main website a few weeks ago, my comment was mysteriously deleted over the weekend. So I am posting it here in the interests of Freedom of Speech.

At last I can cite a decent article about British phage therapy from the Daily Telegraph, 22nd April 2009, where consultant Professor Tony Wright is quoted:

"We did not find any side effects at all and for me it is blindingly obvious that this is the way forward for MRSA and C. difficile where there is antibiotic resistance." >

It is a "change of tune" for the paper since 2007 when their facts about phage were not so great and their editorial stance was distinctly rude in my opinion.

The photo shows Professor Tony Wright kindly demonstrating an ear examination for me during my Churchill Fellows research back in September 2007. 

Here is my official Fellows Today webpage: http://www.wcmt.org.uk/fellows-today/grace-filby.html

Fortunately we do have an eye witness account published in the Liz Taylor biography by C.David Heymann p.222. Milton Blackstone was the person who had delivered the phage medicine safely to the doctors in London from the USA. He is quoted word for word and described as having a big smirk on his face, "That miracle serum did the trick, all right". 

The biography is complete with detailed chapter notes. This on-the-spot evidence confirms the information given me by 2 physicians, 2 scientists and 1 Churchill Fellow (a retired doctor) at the House of Commons.


Here is another archive newspaper report from 1961.
The adverse effects of "chemical thrombosis" caused by the large doses of antibiotics she was given made front page news as she left hospital with a large bandage covering her left leg from her ankle almost to her knee. 

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=950&dat=19610327&id=NuALAAAAIBAJ&sjid=KlcDAAAAIBAJ&pg=3333,4749937

We are advised by a very experienced physician as follows about CHEMICAL THROMBOSIS. 

"Certain antibiotics will do this. It's quite common with erythromycin, which could have been used in those days.
Typically leg veins are not used, as they tend to thrombose, but they may have used up all her arm veins."

In the light of this evidence I am inclined to agree that the phage medicine should certainly receive at least some of the credit for her return to good health. The public are not necessarily made aware of the dangers of antibiotics such as allergies and chemical thrombosis whereas I have recent legal evidence that it does still need pointing out, even to doctors and nurses.

Undoubtedly Miss Taylor was given antibiotics. The 'official' citing of this makes no mention of the adverse effects - nor of the fact that she was also given phage therapy.  We do, after all, have an eye -witness statement that it was the phages that sure did the trick, all right. THE 20 VIALS OF PHAGE MEDICINE SHOULD CERTAINLY RECEIVE AT LEAST SOME OF THE OFFICIAL CREDIT FOR MISS TAYLOR'S RETURN TO GOOD HEALTH.

I am doing my best in trying to put the record straight about phages via this independent website blog, public talks and numerous professional associates. However I do hope in the interests of historical accuracy, that you, the Science Museum, perhaps our noble Lords and even the Wellcome Trust would now be willing to do the same.

Statistics:

'Amazing Phage - the website' is 2 years old.
It will, after all, live on for another year. 
It has been written in 3 continents,
at 5 conferences,
and 6 universities,
as far east as 2 miles from Russia
and as far west as the North West Pacific Ocean.
17 people have signed the guest book.
It has survived the rigours of 20 flights,
on 1 laptop and 8 computers.
Cost: £34.88 p.a.
Access:  Free.

It has resulted in:
a Silver Medallion, 
1 new Churchill Fellow,
1 television interview,
1 book review,
1 co-authored peer-reviewed mini-review,
1 dinner at the House of Commons,
1 lunch at Chartwell,
1 surgery,
1 physical injury,
offending remarks,
meetings at 2 Embassies,
4 newspaper articles,
5 illustrated talks,
research visits to 7 hospitals and clinics,
10 floral bouquets,
meeting 19 phage patients,
a 20 page report,
a 35 minute radio interview,
50 videos on YouTube,
(and one of these is up to 615,504 views),
meeting the son of phage discoverer FW Twort,
meeting the great-grandson of phage discoverer Felix d'Herelle,
meeting 2 people who state that phage therapy has saved their life,
11 newspaper articles about movie star Elizabeth Taylor having life-saving phage therapy,
only 1 newspaper article where the author had thought it was methicillin that saved her life,
finding an eye witness account from Milton Blackstone: "That miracle serum did the trick, all right"
Hundreds of  photographs,
Thousands of emails,

1 miserable funding rejection by the Wellcome Trust
0 phages displayed yet in any science, medical or historical museums,
0 words on Wikipedia 
0 partridges in pear trees.

1 special visit to Monty's Hideout "Battle HQ" in Reigate.
(Field Marshal General Montgomery's troops found phages in captured German medical kits in WW2).

23 APRIL 1945 (exactly 64 years ago) acquisition of Operation James Bond book.

1 photograph of  the house in Reigate where General Eisenhower was stationed in WW2.

Sir Winston Churchill's barber lived 1 minute's walk from here at the top of Howard Road in Reigate.

1 more wartime mystery: Martin Bormann's  "doppleganger" double lived in Wray Common Road, Reigate and was buried 27 June 1989 in Redstone Cemetery. The grave is marked with his original name - not his assumed name.

and finally, the promise of a copy of the brand new Eliava Bacteriophage Report straight from the Ministry of Defence. THANK YOU.

Two years ago I created this website with a ready-made package so that I could easily update it from any computer on my travels overseas.

Now this month Mr Site are running a competition for unusual websites so I have droppped them a line today about Amazing Phage.

If you need a website check out www.mrsite.com. Everything you need to set up a professional dot com website (eg www.yourname.com) in a box. No technical knowledge is needed and it includes email, your own secure online shop, guest book, blog, hosting, support and more.

Although I don't have an online shop, here's a w.w.w. simple way to save money.
If you visit www.mrsite.co.uk/friends and type in the code 25864-FRIENDS you can get a discount on all the packages (25% off Beginner, 20% off Standard and 15% off Pro).

We now have 11 newspaper pdfs and two books confirming that Liz Taylor's pneumonia in 1961 was cured by SPL bacteriophages, not antibiotics.

And here it is stated in black and white. In the book: "Liz An Intimate Biography of Elizabeth Taylor" by David C. Heyman, Samuel Leve, a stage designer declares:

Here is another piece of the jigsaw puzzle about the use of SPL for humans sent to me from a physician in the USA.

He points out that this issue is not being presented accurately. 
The FDA investigation of his use of SPL beginning on or about 1/20/04 lasted one week.  The lack of 7 informed consents (those records weren't transferred when he moved his office from one building, owned by McCready Hospital, to another, free-standing practice) and lack of a registry of lot numbers of human SPL were the only deficiencies found. He submitted an IND on 11/8/03 to the FDA with full approval from the parent company; he had IRB approval. He comments that SPL worked beautifully to raise VEGF which nothing else did.  No
action was required on his part.  No punishment was meted out.

I am not a doctor so I can only guess that the acronyms are:

IND: Investigational New Drug Application
IRB: Institutional Review Board
VEGF: Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor

Isn't it a crazy world where something works beautifully but we don't use it? Anyway this is one of the books about Liz Taylor that confirms she had lifesaving SPL phage treatment in 1961. Along with all our newspaper evidence I think this far outweighs the claim in one New York Times article, then cited in a book on antibiotics and a Wellcome Trust article that it was antibiotics that did the trick. Those claims would need to be substantiated with some hard evidence rather than just a journalist's opinion over in New York. Anyway, they would say that, wouldn't they? The article was all about promoting a pharmaceutical company's synthetic drugs rather than providing a balanced account of what really happened.

Skin cancer is the most common cancer in the U.K.

Fair skinned people are at higher risk of developing skin cancer.

The number of cases of skin cancer in the UK is estimated at over 100,000 each year. More than 9,500 cases were reported for malignant melanoma in 2005.

Over 2,300 people die from skin cancer each year in the U.K.

Malignant melanoma is the second most common cancer in young adults aged 15-34 in the UK.

Malignant melanoma is more than twice as common in young women up to age 34 as in young men, but more men die from it.

Malignant melanoma incidence rates have quadrupled since the early 1970s.

There are more skin cancer deaths in the UK than Australia (CRUK press release 2003), even though Australia has more cases of the disease.

Source: RAFT
The Restoration of Appearance and Function Trust  www.raft.ac.uk






 A basal cell carcinoma BCC diagnosed Nov 07, Dermatology Institute TX





Now what can be done about it? I learned yesterday on my visit to The RAFT Institute that INTRAVENOUS VITAMIN C is being studied as a treatment option for malignant melanoma because it's toxic to cancer cells. I also learned that youngsters in Scotland are spending their lunch money on slot machine sun lamp treatments. Seasonal affective symptoms if you ask my opinion - desperate for some vitamin D or a holiday to cheer themselves up in the long dull winters. And I learned about the quantity of sun cream recommended by the manufacturer - the amount is 2mg/cm2 and its efficacy is decreased when rubbed in. People actually apply 4 times less, so the formula needs changing. It would be so much more sensible if people just stay out of the midday sun (11am-3pm) and start wearing sun hats again.

May I just add a few words from my Churchill Fellows research report 2007 - The Health Value of Bacteriophages, page 10.

"In September 2007 in Wroclaw, the Polish Pharmacological Society heard from Prof. Andrzej Gorski about research investigating the oncological and immunological interactions of phages with higher organisms. This science is uniquely based on some inspiring observations that pieces of lung tissue bathed in HAP1 phages (lovely name!) had significantly less melanoma. The effect is clearly visible in photographs. The scientists state that the effect of phages is immunological. The research publications prove that, under well-defined circumstances, phages can have anti-metastatic activity (anti-cancer/anti-tumour)."

The bit about phages is the last item on this clip - 5:56 to 9:09.

The first part of the seminar is online here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNu_JCxjdjc

Friday 13 March 2009

THIS IS AN OPEN LETTER to the Customer Service Centre at the Department of Health for your information and entertainment.


Dear Mr A....

As you know I wrote to Mr Gordon Brown in February about an important and
urgent matter, cc'ing it to Sir Liam Donaldson's and Mr Alan Johnson's
private offices.

However, your reply to me this week on their collective behalf contained
some scientific inaccuracies and false assumptions which need to be put
right.

Since it is National Science and Engineering Week and I am an event
organiser and ambassador for this national and innovative programme, I am
taking the time to clarify for you exactly what these inaccuracies and false
assumptions are. It is my intention that you and your colleagues at the Dept
of Health will be better informed and illuminated about the basic science.



1. You wrote:

"With regard to ventilation systems,
I should explain that hospitals do use specialised air filtration systems in
cases where airborne transmission is thought to be important."

For your information:
The most common filter used in the NHS is HEPA.

In reply please note the following points:

*     Filters do not filter viruses. The efficiency of HEPA is often
highlighted but in reality HEPA are inherently inefficient @ 0.01%. In a
normal ventilation system the HEPA filter is challenged with 10,000
particles 0.1 - 0.3 micron / cubic foot every minute assuming normal
airflows the HEPA will allow 10,000 particles / minute or 1,4400,000
particles  every 24 hours.

*     HEPA filters will not trap viruses which are .027 microns. Norovirus,
Influenza, TB. HEPA will only trap some bacteria, not all, so what about
protection from MRSA and other bacteria that HEPA can't fully protect
against?

*     HEPA is only used in specialist patient areas not the whole hospital,
so what about general bio-security in hospitals? At this point, it is
non-existent.


2. You wrote:

"In such systems, the dilution of pathogens in the air and controlling
airflow into or out of a room are mechanisms for reducing infection risk.
This can be important in the protection of highly vulnerable patients
('airborne protective isolation'), and the protection of staff and visitors
inside an isolation room or of other patients, staff and visitors outside
('airborne source isolation'). Ventilation systems can be set up to control
directions of airflow and dilution of airborne pathogens. There are also
portable systems that recirculate air within a given space. By means of
filtration, ultraviolet light or other methods of killing or trapping
micro-organisms, these systems can reduce airborne levels of pathogens but
cannot, by these means alone, control airflow into or out of a room."

In reply please note the following points:

*     UVC is NOT generally used in NHS hospitals, so your assumption about
its use in this limited area is largely incorrect.

*      The problem of effective infection control should be seen as a
hospital-wide issue and the potential use of such technologies as UVC should
be viewed as best engineering practice as a catch all technology for the
whole hospital, not just specialist areas. This is possible now with large
industrial size systems that offer prophylactic protection for all building
occupants including NHS staff.

*      Currently there seems to be a huge resistance to the use of UVC
technology that has proven clinical benefits of significantly reducing all
infections including HCAIs.

3. You wrote:

"However, I should point out that airborne transmission is probably not the
main transmission route for most HCAIs. The use of air filtration is only
one component of a strategy to reduce infection rates."

In reply please note the following points:

*      UVC should not just be seen as another insignificant air filtration
method. It will kill any virus, bacteria and mould making it superior to
current preventative methods.

*     In addition, UVC breaks the cycle of mutation and should be seen as a
major technology in the development of new antibiotics against the further
mutation of bacteria such as Panton Valentine Leukocidin, MRSA &
C.Difficile. On top of this, it is the only technology that will effectively
kill Norovirus that shuts so many NHS wards during winter months.

*     Studies contradict your assumption.
http://www.bath.ac.uk/news/articles/releases/mrsaamoeba280206.html

*    The Royal College of Nursing contradict your assumption.
http://www.e-co.uk.com/infectioncontrol.pdf

*     Leading academics contradict your assumption.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/letters/article418262.ece

The latest iterations of UVC not only clean the air that passes them but
also the occupied space and surfaces 24/7.

I shall make no further comment to you about bacteriophages since I have
devoted a whole website to the subject, have researched independently
overseas through the generosity of the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust and
others, and I have spoken publicly whereas the DoH have, they are "afraid to
say", been repeating themselves tediously on the subject for several years
with no further outcome or advance.

Please note I shall be publishing this reply online with the exception of
your identity.

Yours sincerely

Grace Filby BA(Hons) Cert Ed FRSA
Churchill Fellow
Science and Engineering Ambassador
01737 217013

Six weeks ago I wrote about the evidence that Staphage Lysate was flown over to London in 1961, in an emergency dash to save the life of actress Elizabeth Taylor from staphylococcal pneumonia.

Now I can highlight another heart-warming story about a young man of 27 in Oklahoma City with autism who has also benefited greatly from Staphage Lysate, as a child. Stephen's mother Mary Ann Puckett, is, like me, an educator and advocate who has pioneered a way through the disability system to guide others and raise awareness. She comments here on Amazing Phage:

'In the 1980's he was having constant reoccurring infections. An elderly neighbor told me about an antibacterial injection that she had been given in the 1950's called Staphage Lysate for infections and she was cured. I was able to get in touch with the wife of the Dr. who had used SL. and she told me it was a miracle drug. She gave me the name of the lab where it was ordered from: Delmont Labs. I had my son's doctor call and inquire about SL. Stephen's doctor then ordered a vial of SL and began treatment with him. He was immediately off of antibiotics and his overall health greatly improved. I was very sorry to see it taken off the market because autistic children have a common thread of immune deficiencies.'

In fact, Mary has written on autism: a narrative of her son's life from birth to age 23. In the book called 'Take Him Home and Love Him/ A Story of Autism and How to Cope with It' she shares information on Staphage Lysate and how it was a life saver for her son Stephen. She also gives a brief history of its use in the 1950's. The book is available on eBay and Amazon.com as well as on her website. She has medical doctors endorsing the book and the response to it around the world has been very rewarding. Mary specifically put information in the book about SPL because she wants others to be aware that it is out there, even though it is currently only available for use with dogs. She wrote in the book that she hopes the medical community will take a second look at the benefits of SPL and question why it was put on hold. She additionally contacted the doctor at Delmont Labs in Swarthmore, PA to discuss why it was not longer available. He told Mary that Delmont is a small lab and the FDA was putting so much pressure on him to do more research that he had to pull it for human use because the cost would be so prohibitive.

Here is a 4 page document from July 2008 that I hadn't seen before, called New Anti-Infectives and published by POST. This is an office of both Houses of Parliament, charged with providing independent and balanced analysis of public policy issues that have a basis in science and technology.

http://www.parliament.uk/documents/upload/postpn311.pdf

There are some hard-edged statistics:

"There is concern that the incidence of infections is often underestimated, sometimes by a significant margin. World Health Organisation (WHO) figures show that in 2002, infectious diseases caused 70,300 deaths in the UK (12% of all deaths). It is estimated that each year:

• Respiratory infections cause 35,167 deaths.

• There are at least 300,000 HCAIs, implicated in 20,000 deaths.

• There are 5-25,000 deaths due to seasonal flu.

• 35% of GP consultations are due to an infection.

• 20% suffer from an intestinal infectious disease.

• 150,000 are admitted to hospital due to infection."

I found some other shockers:

Academic research is funded through three major sources: the EU, the UK government and medical charities.
Of this, 12% is targeted on infectious disease research.

With the medical charities e.g. Wellcome, "Of £64 million spent on health research in 2006, only 3% was on infections." Yes, THREE PER CENT.


And here is a little speck of hope!

In Box 4 - Novel treatment approaches, I found this (unreferenced) item.

"Bacteriophages - these are viruses that infect and kill bacteria, but their clinical efficacy and safety remain unproven despite sustained interest over many years. The use of bacteriophage-derived enzymes to clear infections also holds promise."

I think I will send them my letter to Mr Brown.

Have you seen the new Polish paper published January 2009?

http://content.karger.com/produktedb/produkte.asp?typ=fulltext&file=000193293


The Potential of Phage Therapy in Bacterial Infections of the Eye
by Andrzej Górski, Magdalena Targoska, Jan Borysowski and Beata Weber-Dabrowska

Abstract:

Antibiotic resistance has become a major health challenge which poses a significant threat, also in ophthalmology. For example, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus may cause dramatic complications, including bilateral blindness as a consequence of orbital cellulitis and panophthalmitis. This menace has provoked a greatly revived interest in phage therapy. In recent years, a number of papers have been published suggesting its efficacy in animal and human bacterial infections, but none of them addressed the phage potential in ophthalmology, which is the subject of this mini review.

Copyright © 2009 S. Karger AG, Basel

A two year hospital study evaluated the effectiveness of some air purification technology on airborne and surface transmitted diseases such as MRSA. The figures speak for themselves! 

All the UK managed with its various strategies was 33% - but the NHS technical guidelines for looking at the ventilation urgently need updating in my opinion. 33 + 39 = ?

13 February 2009


Dear Mr Brown

During your Labour leadership campaign, you emphasised cracking down on corruption.

You stated that the NHS was your top priority, yet in June 2007 you cut the capital budget of the English NHS from £6.2bn to £4.2bn. The FT forecasted at the time that this "could delay the government’s hospital building and reconfiguration programme in England."

As a result of some lengthy FOI research I have discovered that:

^"Routine bacteriological testing of ventilation systems is not a requirement under NHS technical guidance."

Ref: Directorate of Surrey & Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust 27.1.09.

This simple statement explains why we still have MRSA, C.difficile, Norovirus, influenza and mould-induced symptoms circulating freely in our hospitals, office buildings, public buildings, leisure centres, schools and transport systems. Yet they could all be prevented by US-Government recommended UV-C technology. The UK handwashing campaign programme is hopelessly inadequate and even with the other measures taken, the figures have only reduced by about 33%. Please be advised that the germs are also in recycled air. This fact has been overlooked. Apart from the serious implications for patients, there are health and safety risks to all NHS employees.

Fortunately for this Government and thereafter, physical/natural science and engineering can put things right at relatively low cost and in a sustainable way, alongside the orthodox chemicals/drugs approach. It is essential that the NHS technical guidance is overhauled.

Hence, you would be able to fulfill a commitment you made in an Ask the PM video:  (10.9.08)

"We will continue to make sure that everything we do is designed so that if you have to go to hospital then you will find that that hospital is clean and it makes you feel secure."

There is also new evidence that the peer review system for independent scientific research and public engagement has become corrupted. http://www.amazingphage.info/page6.htm#36324
I trust that your departmental chiefs would like to know more.

Meanwhile I thank you that the Ministry of Defence is heading up the G8 priority Eliava report which is to be published soon, formally acknowledging the health value of bacteriophages in preventing and treating infections. I hope that this science will soon be applied in other areas in the UK, such as bio-security and the environment. With regard to the NHS budget, there would be a huge saving if serious consideration was given to data from the Polish Academy of Sciences. Phage treatment of MRSA patients is a small fraction of the cost of antibiotics.


Yours sincerely





Grace Filby

Here's a reminder of the Amazing Phage photo galleries - I took them off the main menu for a while.
You can request the password via the CONTACT page. Please note that all the photos are copyright and are not to be used in any format without my permission.


United Kingdom:
http://www.amazingphage.info/page2.htm

North America:
http://www.amazingphage.info/page3.htm

Georgia:
http://www.amazingphage.info/page4.htm

Poland:
http://www.amazingphage.info/page5.htm

Eliava Institute:
http://www.amazingphage.info/page10.htm

Military Hospital:
http://www.amazingphage.info/page11.htm

PTC:
http://www.amazingphage.info/page12.htm

Evergreen:
http://www.amazingphage.info/page13.htm

Warsaw phages:
http://www.amazingphage.info/page16.htm

Wroclaw phages:
http://www.amazingphage.info/page17.htm

Warsaw:
http://www.amazingphage.info/page18.htm

Wroclaw:
http://www.amazingphage.info/page19.htm

Gnomes:
http://www.amazingphage.info/page20.htm

You remember that rejected funding application to travel about over the next three years doing illustrated talks about bacteriophages and other technologies?

Well, as promised, here's that anonymised feedback from real enlightened scientists, physicians and members of the public about the Wellcome Trust's "Public Engagement" funding peer review process:

"Do NOT give up! We have to move ahead, against all odds!"


"The peer scoring and comment seem biased towards smearing the use of phage therapy!
Wellcome must have gotten their hand stuck in the Fleming-think honey pot."

I am pleased to announce a forthcoming book on phage therapy in French, by Dr Alain Dublanchet , our associate in Paris: Viruses for combatting infections.

    
   

  


   Phage therapy -
   renewal of a treatment to help antibiotics?


           www.geephage.org

                           There is already an online article about Dr Dublanchet's work here:

http://translate.google.com/translate?prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fdbloud.free.fr%2Finflama.htm&sl=fr&tl=en&history_state0=&swap=1

Thanks for your help with all the background research. Since the Wellcome funding application to do illustrated talks in the UK was unsuccessful, they have now sent a third anonymous peer review that was initially kept secret! This so-called expert opinion was by a senior scientist working in virology and bacteriophage, insisting that there is no health value of bacteriophages.

I am very grateful for the huge wave of support by email and phone. I shall anonymise some of this feedback and ensure that the Wellcome Trust have a measure of the strength of feeling.

Text: http://www.relax-well.co.uk/Filby%20r...

Published today by the Filby Association - the 2009 Chronicle.

Friday 13th on a beautiful summer’s day in London will always evoke special memories after an occasion in June, 2008, that was a great privilege and honour to attend.

It would be another few weeks before we would know who was to be the VIP in 2008. The previous ceremony in 2006 was at Buckingham Palace and the presentations were made by Her Majesty The Queen. This year, we learned, it was to have been Prince William, but the Royal Navy had other plans for him chasing pirates in the Caribbean, so the announcement was that the medallions were to be presented by Lady Soames – what could be more fitting? Mary Soames is the youngest daughter of Sir Winston Churchill. This was very significant to me for several reasons. My first official talk was booked for her birthday in September (also Battle of Britain Day and Prince Harry’s birthday). Also Lady Soames is about the same age as my parents. I had found from my archive research into 20th century medical history that Mary was born just after the time that phage therapy had been discovered!

It was time to go. In a moment’s reflection in the courtyard, a limousine arrived for Lady Soames. Back in Surrey what could be more welcome than a nice cup of tea and a chance to look at the Silver Medallion - another item for the family's box of treasures. It is made at the Royal Mint. The satin-lined box is engraved with "Winston Churchill Memorial Trust" and the medallion itself - "2007 GRACE FILBY". The reverse is heavily embossed with Sir Winston Churchill’s distinctive profile and his weighty words "WITH OPPORTUNITIES COMES RESPONSIBILITY".

October 2nd 2009 has been designated as the first World MRSA Day  by Chicago-based MRSA Survivors Network founded by Jeanine Thomas.

It was on that date in 1960 that a methicillin-resistant strain of staphylococcus aureus was first seen through the microscope, by Patricia Jevons at the Public Health Laboratories in Colindale, London. 

The first samples had been sent there for identification from a hospital in Guildford, Surrey, taken from a patient with eczema and a nurse.

Within a few days, at nearby Queen Mary's Hospital for Sick Children in Carshalton, the children were also becoming infected, with a Queen Mary's strain. Over the next 14 months they had already had 75 children infected. 55 of these were newborn babies.  It was here - at the largest children's hospital in the country, that there was the first MRSA fatality, in June 1962. Born with spina bifida, a boy became infected with the resistant germ after surgery, resulting in septicaemia. It proved fatal.

Nearly fifty years later, MRSA has spread worldwide and fatalies are commonplace.

Methicillin was first created in the Beecham laboratories at Betchworth - also in Surrey, and just a short drive away from Guildford and Carshalton.

The hope of “World MRSA Day” is to bring people together every year to remind them of those who have lost their lives or have diminished health because of a preventable disease. By working together, whether as an advocate, scientist, healthcare worker, policy maker, student, caregiver or a patient living with MRSA we can collectively heighten the awareness and educate others on prevention.

To help provide education and awareness, a variety of events, exhibits, materials, candlelight vigils and commemoration programs are being planned and will be announced later.

Here in the UK I am offering talks and presentations as a Science & Engineering Ambassador so please get in contact if your group or organisation would like a speaker.  I do slide shows and videos too as long as you can provide a projector and someone to do the IT stuff, and can help out with expenses.

Several reliable US medical sources had told me in 2007 that Elizabeth Taylor was treated with phages for staphylococcus pneumonia during the filming of 'Cleopatra'. 

A British doctor (another Churchill Fellow) also volunteered the information at dinner at the House of Commons, so it seemed the right thing to check it out! Many thanks to a Californian physician for meeting up again here in Reigate and researching some US newspaper archives.

It is today, a great pleasure to announce some details and documentary evidence of this exciting life-saving story. It certainly sounds like a dramatic turnaround. The best bit is saved for the end of this news item .....

It was early spring, 1961, in London. It can still be very cold at that time of year. I imagine that if the film crew were all stuck indoors in the studio there was not much chance for fresh air and sunlight to keep the germs away. Elizabeth Taylor and her husband, Eddie Fisher, were staying at the Dorchester Hotel.

On Friday 3rd March, the 29-year old star fell ill with a severe attack of staphylococcal pneumonia. The news immediately hit the international press and the New York Times reported that she was put in an oxygen tent at the hotel, and transferred to the London Clinic by ambulance with her husband, two physicians and 3 nurses.

By the evening of Saturday 4th March, her breathing was so bad that surgery was necessary - she had a tracheotomy and was put on an electronic lung. The medical statement for the press was signed by Lord Evans (Queen Elizabeth II's honorary physician) and two other physicians: "Her condition remains grave." This latest news was again reported in the New York Times. On the Sunday she was reported as "not out of danger as yet".

Meanwhile, a woman in New Jersey wrote immediately by special delivery airmail, to Liz Taylor's London physician: Dr Carl Heinz Goldman.  She wanted to let him know that she had previously been treated successfully for severe staphylococcal pneumonia by her US physician, Dr Salmon, a pediatric allergist, who had all the details of the treatment. So her one letter and prompt action were sufficient to put the two key people in contact.

On Monday 6th March, on its receipt, Dr Salmon was telephoned twice by Eddie Fisher, and at noon, by Dr Goldman himself. He explained that it was called SPL - Staphage Lysate -  in other words - Staph(ylococcus) (Bacterio)Phage Lysate. Phage had been produced in Europe and the US for a number of years. SPL was produced under supervision of Theodore Purnell, associate professor of education and science at Pennsylvania Military College. Dr Salmon had been using it with patients, mostly children, for 8 years, mostly when antibiotics were not effective against staphylococcus.

Dr Goldman requested two variations of the drug plus a combination of both. Dr Salmon's comment to the press was: "We could have ordered a supply of the drug from the manufacturer but there wasn't time. We saved precious time by using our own stock." It was arranged that 20 vials, each of one cubic centimetre, would be flown to London immediately.

Eddie Fisher's agent, Milton Blackstone, flew with the SPL phage medicine from Philadelphia International Airport to New York Idlewild Airport then by jet to London on the Monday night.

While this was taking place on the Monday, Elizabeth Taylor was given a blood transfusion for anaemia. Her strength ebbed. The medical opinion was "We are very worried". That night there were two doctors in the sick room, plus her husband and her parents.

On the morning of Tuesday 7th March, there was a bedside meeting of the full medical team - 6 doctors. That evening, the staph phage was given - either by injection or nasally by aerosol.

By the very next evening of Wednesday 8th March, one of the doctors Dr Victor Hatner told reporters that the patient was "vastly improved"! The official bulletin stated "Her condition is greatly improved and gives less cause for anxiety".

The drama was over - thanks to the SPL phage - or was it?

A week later, a follow up article was published in the New York Times about the need for cures for Staphylococcal infections such as Elizabeth Taylor's. Strangely, it doesn't mention the SPL. Instead the writer states that it was a synthetic drug, "Staphcillin" (methicillin) that had been "finally created late 1960" at the Beecham Labs, Betchworth, Surrey, just down the road here near Reigate, and it was this that saved her life.

Now we have an interesting situation. If Elizabeth Taylor did also receive a course of this synthetic drug, then was the dramatic and immediate turnaround in events over just one night - 7th March - the result of the action of the SPL, or of the methicillin, or both? 

The fact is that SPL had cured the anonymous American woman from New Jersey, long before the new synthetic drug was created.

Another fact is that SPL was FDA-approved for human use until the 1990s - and remains in veterinary use for dogs!

Thirdly, phages are known for their rapid effects in successful treatment, because they self-replicate until the offending germ is gone. In contrast, treatment with synthetic drugs is usually over a course of several days or weeks.

There is also the possibility that one or more of the news articles were not entirely accurate.

So we are not completely sure whether the synthetic drug or the SPL phage, or both, were what saved Elizabeth Taylor but we can ponder over it.

The event has become legendary, to such an extent that Robert Bud, curator of the Science Museum, when writing about antibiotic resistance in a 2005 Wellcome publication, stated: "Famously, the life of the actress Elizabeth Taylor was rescued after she was treated for staphylococcal pneumonia". Maybe it was just an assumption that it was methicillin?

It is worth noting that twenty years later, by May 1981, Liz Taylor had by that time had four bouts of pneumonia. Suffering from a throat infection whilst performing in the stage production "The Little Foxes", she and her two doctors Wilbur Gould and Michael A Rosenbluth were quoted in the New York Times as saying that she was allergic to antibiotics. It is reassuring to know that phage medicines are still available to this day.

Anyway, now we have verification that phage had a very significant part to play in 1961, along with all the men and women (and the animals, and the ultra-microscopic) in the epic list of characters. 

Here is the website for the SPL manufacturers: http://www.delmont.com/product.htm.  They kept that quiet, didn't they?   

© 2009 Grace Filby


Video: Cleopatra bathes in phages - 1963

Why are governments and international committees still huffing and puffing over huge looming potential disasters from deadly pathogen contamination, intentional or accidental?

Why do employers put up with vastly expensive sickness absence every winter from seasonal infections and epidemics when they could be simply preventing them instead?

It is so frustrating when the answers are already here. Today I was sent an article about E.coli phages. 
Anyone would think from the title and the abstract that it is about

You'll find most of my new phage mini videos on my YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/pinknonsense.

This one is rather special. Here's Tony Smithyman's talk on Phage Therapy in the 21st Century: it's in three parts of about 10 minutes each.

Here are some video clips of the Republic of Georgia showing the life-saving work of Dr. Guram Gvasalia.


Child care - newborns, ear infections, throat infections

A burns patient

A stomach infection patient

An MRSA osteomyelitis patient

These are two of my own new video clips:

An MRSA sinusitis patient

Military Hospital

Isn't this fun, whilst delivering the message? Please pass it on.

Now are you sitting comfortably?

There are lots of young girls all over the world who have had to face the needle in the arm with this cervical cancer jab (Gardasil in the USA and Cervarix in the UK).  I was quietly getting on with my phage projects, preparing to give talks and pulling together those loose ends with the exciting historical research and wondering what to do with all that video footage.

But a couple of weeks ago an alarm bell rang in my ears when I was reading the local newspaper.

It was a news item about the UK cervical cancer HPV vaccination campaign, and there, right in the middle of it, was this statement - completely unreferenced!  "the vaccine itself is safe, with no serious side effects reported..."

So since then I have been doing a lot more investigating, folks!   It is a tangled tale of mystery and perhaps (not my word) 'deception' - time will tell.  But what concerns me is that the truth needs to be told, not glossed over with political 'spin'.

The story is developing rapidly, so here is my latest news release, also just published on Medical News Today, so it will be seen by a very wide audience. If you'd like to comment, you can do so here, or on that site, or both. Thank you.


 ------------------------------------------------------------

Cervical cancer vaccine: ‘dangers mean more research is needed‘


An independent health researcher is calling on the government for more research into the possible side-effects of the cervical cancer vaccine that is currently being given to teenage girls throughout the country.

Grace Filby, who won a Churchill Fellowship for her research into phage therapy, believes that not enough is known about the effects of the vaccine on children with pre-existing medical conditions and with weakened immune systems from their existing medication.

Grace, of Reigate, Surrey, said: “We simply do not know whether the vaccine interacts with other medication or medical conditions, and the manufacturers have not studied it yet. This could be a very valid reason why some families and schools might hesitate or opt out."


She has this week written to UK education ministers and health officials calling for urgent small-scale independent studies that would highlight any health problems stemming from vaccinations already carried out.

Grace, who has years of experience teaching innovative science and special educational needs projects, said: “Whilst many schools are awaiting their first vaccine injections, there are opportunities to provide valuable information and guidance to parents and pupils concerned about side effects from Cervarix, the cancer vaccine from GlaxoSmithKline.”


She suggested a study of attendance records at St Monica's High School in Lancashire, where school governors have reported that  a number of girls were either absent from school following their vaccination or had to be sent home suffering from dizziness, nausea, joint pain, headaches or high temperature.

She also suggested a study of any side-effects at the Royal Alexandra and Albert state boarding school in Reigate, Surrey, where Year 8 girls had their first jabs on Friday 26 September, the same day that the school hosted BBC Radio 4's Any Questions? A response on Any Answers? points out the additional risks of vaccinations to some children, e.g. with epilepsy in the family, on their doctor's advice.


"With schools taking so much responsibility in this massive vaccination programme," said Grace Filby, " The Department for Children, Schools and Families could be making a valuable contribution to the debate by facilitating a couple of simple, independent studies. I have written to both schools with the suggestion, and I do hope the education ministers will help by giving it their blessing."

And just to be on the safe side, I  have sent it to the Prime Minister, so we shall see if he reads it this time!

PS Researcher Mike Jozefiak's findings on Gardasil are here: http://www.deepwide.co.uk/Gardasil.html

and Andrew Lansley MP, the Shadow Secretary of State for Health, has written to say that he is afraid that he doesn't agree with me about the vaccine programme against HPV.

This is a 2 minute video so that you have a flavour of the first Amazing Phage talk here in my home town of Reigate on 15th September - the anniversary of Battle of Britain Day. There were 40 people in the audience. I have had to give up on the film 'Amazing Phage - the Scientists and the Patients' since I have only seen it once just 36 hours before, and it would need some considerable expertise to deliver the correct messages.  So you will see - I provided an exhibition of treasures from my travels, the slide show '80 days in 8 minutes' (except I think it was even faster than that), 'Phages on the Battlefield' as delivered to the British Embassy in Washington DC and to the Ministry of Defence and my MP's assistant, a Big Red Scrapbook,  a talk starring MRSA in a smart gold box with bright red shiny ribbon, a bucket and a sparkling white old-fashioned mop containing a T4 phage in its purple and black camouflage uniform - and the crowning glory, my next door neighbour's RAF hat from 1942, as worn in the Cabinet War Rooms underground, then as shorthand typist to Churchill's daughter Sarah doing secret work on bombing maps, out in the countryside and fresh air. She had polished the brass badge specially. This mini-video also finishes with the vital words of phage discoverer, F.W.Twort, since his 1941 message to Churchill didn't get through at the time: stating that the situation "MUST BE PUT RIGHT".  

What better place than just beside Field Marshall Montgomery's secret South East Command HQ during WW2 and also just a couple of miles away from the European HQ of the well-known company, Pfizer? Monty was the guy who had the massive wartime success in North Africa (and phage kits were found on the enemy troops). Churchill himself enabled Pfizer and their shareholders to do very well over the years. Shame about the rest of us but at least we know about phages now, thanks to Twort and Mitchiner and other local people here in Reigate.

The outstanding piano playing of "Somewhere over the rainbow" at the beginning of this video is by our young local musical genius, Derek Paravacini and with kind permission of Evangelos Himonides. Derek is famous internationally for his great gift, even though he is blind and autistic. I hope you will show your appreciation accordingly and leave a message in the guest book or in the comments box below, or on the YouTube page.

That's all for now, folks.

I would like to thank all the people who have signed the Guest Book and have left a message. The latest one is from Eman Kamel:

This 5-page scientific paper from Poland contains some very worthwhile reading.

Bacteriophage therapy in children - Facts and prospects

MRSA or Phage Therapy? A commentary about work taking place healing patients in Poland, and then a scientific gathering in Edinburgh. The music is from Swan Lake - full of phages.

Did you know?

1. Josef Stalin and the Red Army were all in favour of phages.

2. The Pulitzer-prize-winning novel 'Arrowsmith' was inspired by phage therapy.

3. The blockbuster movie 'Arrowsmith' was inspired by phage therapy.

4. Adolf Hitler had a course of phage therapy - starting on his birthday! Was it a gift?

5. Movie star Elizabeth Taylor had life-saving phage therapy in March 1961 for pneumonia - the unfolding drama was reported numerous times in the US news press but 'covered up' immediately afterwards in the NYT. For evidence see this blog entry for 12 Jan 09.

6. The President of Georgia, Mikhael Saakashvili states he has had phage therapy - and he also states it cured a relative of his with gangrene.

7. Number Ten Downing Street has it on record about phage therapy.

8. The staircase at Amazing Phage HQ was built by Ronnie Biggs, the Great Train Robber.

9. There is a Phage University Psalm 23 (circa 1950):

Delbruck is my shepherd, I shall not err.
He leadeth me beside the right theory.
He maketh me to lie down in his ideas.
He restoreth my doubt.
He leadeth me in the paths of research.
For his name's sake.
Yea tho' I walk thru' the valley of the shadow of math, I shall fear no mistake,
Thy physics and thy calculus they comfort me.
Thou preparest my data in the face of thy enemies, thou annointest my plate with phage, my titer runneth over.
Surely precision and accuracy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the Hall of Fame forever.

10. Phage is advocated in ancient literature: Hinduism, Islam and the Bible.

Yes, this is about phage therapy -
here's the music and the lyrics .

Wish please.



Thank you!

In this NHS birthday party video, the Prime Minister says some good things! 

But of course there isn't even a mention of hospital infections. We can only assume that any patients with MRSA or C.diff weren't invited to the party!


Watch out though - right at the very end, he says:

"....FIFTEEN BILLION pounds that we are spending in the next ten years to the cures to some of the most difficult-to-deal-with diseases, including cancer. I think it is very important that we make medical advances in Britain and show that we are really at the top of the scientific community."

Well, that is going to be a complete waste of money unless they do read the BMJ article I sent the other day, and start investing some of that £15 BILLION into phages and other alternatives to antibiotics, to prevent cancer in the first place. And they need to tell the pig farmers too.

Published 21 August 2008, doi:10.1136/bmj.a1381
Cite this as: BMJ 2008;337:a1381

News

Antibiotics may be linked to risk of cancer

The risk of developing prostate, breast, lung, and colon cancer rises with use of antibiotics, a large observational study has found (International Journal of Cancer 2008 Aug 14, doi: 10.1002/ijc.23622).

The risk of less common cancer has also been linked with antibiotic use. The study shows that the risk of being diagnosed with non-melanoma skin, duodenum, pancreas, kidney, bladder, male genitals (excluding prostate), and thyroid cancers as well as myeloma and leukaemia, was more than 1.5 times more among participants with six or more antibiotic prescriptions, compared with the group with lowest exposure.

"Findings suggest that antibiotic use, especially repeated prescriptions, is associated with increased risk of cancer," say the researchers, whose study is based on more than three million people and more than 100 000 cases.

Health webchat with Ann Keen

Local water companies don't test for phages in our tap water. It's a 'free for all' in our bathing water and drinking water - the phage content isn't regulated or monitored.



Full marks to Sutton and East Surrey Water plc for  answering a question within one working day.



The Environment Agency states in a 2008 science report about sewage risks (page 20) that bacteriophages ( ) are harmless.


So it's official, with the geographers making it nice and simple, just as we were saying all along.

Here's the reference: 'Sewage risks to urban groundwater':
www.shef.ac.uk/content/1/c6/08/16/06/Sewage%20risks%20science%20report.pdf

Here is a short item about phages from Australia's National Nine News.

The conference was really good. I didn't understand most of it but there was an introduction by Prof. A. Gorski about phage therapy (in Poland their clinic welcomes patients with antibiotic resistant infections - and they are in the EU), and I managed to video an excellent presentation by Tony Smithyman from Australia who incidentally has just won a cash award. Meanwhile my little contribution was three copies of my new article about FW Twort - and a few words to everyone at the end of the after-dinner speeches.
Here's the first news item after the conference. If your poster or talk is not mentioned in this following press release, (or you would like to recommend one) please feel welcome to post a comment at the end.

First Phage Biotech Conference Creates Interest in New Trade Body

Region : All

The first international phage biotechnology conference, held this week at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre, is expected to lead to the formation of an International Phage Society and trade body to represent the interests of a wide variety of scientists, clinicians and biotechnology businesses working with bacteriophages. These organisations would represent and promote the interests of members in areas such as regulatory affairs, funding, and raising commercial and public awareness of these smallest forms of life.

Bacteriophages are viruses which only infect bacteria, and recently an explosion of interest in their use for a variety of medical and industrial applications has occurred. For example, phage therapy uses phages to kill bacteria resistant to antibiotics, such as MRSA in hospital infections and listeria on foodstuffs.

Initiated by Edinburgh firm Big DNA Ltd, which is developing vaccines which use bacteriophages as their delivery vehicle, international delegates voted the event a huge success, and one of the best conferences they had ever attended, covering a wide range of topics from pure research to industrial and medical applications. Organised by Dr Jason Clark from Big DNA, over 150 delegates took part from a very wide range of backgrounds and countries.

Dr John March, chief executive of Big DNA said: ”My hope is that the wide range of scientists, clinicians and biotechnologists currently researching or putting phages to practical use are able to pool their knowledge and expertise to accelerate progress towards further development in this exciting field of biotechnology.  The same basic issues affect researchers and industrialists from many different disciplines. I firmly believe that by collaborating together, we can all reach our scientific goals faster, cheaper and better, for the good of mankind.”

It is hoped that a Bacteriophage Society will be set up as an outcome of this conference which would assist those involved in R&D and that a trade organisation could also be formed by those involved in clinical trials of several phage based products which help towards achieving regulatory approval.

A bacteriophage is a virus which only infects bacteria and like antibiotics, can kill the bacteria, especially in situations where there is resistance to antibiotics.  From the 1930s to the 1970s there was great interest in phages, but that waned with the development of antibiotics. But more recently, it has been recognised that bacteriophages have several potential applications in the modern biotechnology industry – they have been proposed as delivery vehicles for protein and DNA vaccines; as gene therapy delivery vehicles; as alternatives to antibiotics; for the detection of pathogenic bacteria; and as tools for screening libraries of proteins, peptides or antibodies.   This diversity, and the ease of their manipulation and production, means that they have potential uses in research, therapeutics and manufacturing in both the biotechnology and medical fields.   That diversity was reflected in the talks at the conference which stimulated both discussion and more importantly, collaboration between delegates.

Dr John March continued: “Normally those working with phages in the fields of cancer, genes or immunology would be attending conferences in those fields, and would never normally meet. We brought together these people for the first time, from diverse scientific backgrounds who can share ideas, processes and the same basic principles in their work, from very different fields across the globe. Although delegates and speakers had very different objectives from each other, we share the same basic principles in our work, such as manufacturing, licencing, regulatory approvals, and I wanted everyone to have the chance to share the use of phage technology and our common themes.”

If you would like more information on the International Phage Society when it is set up, please contact:  john.march@bigdna.co.uk

Here is my article after meeting with Dr Antony Twort.

http://www.amazingphage.info/USERIMAGES/antonytwort-july08.pdf

On Sunday Dr Antony Twort came to tea. Now 85, he is the
biographer of his father, Frederick William Twort F.R.S, described in 1917 as 'the best microbiologist in the country'. The ASM acknowledged in 1999 that the discovery of bacteriophages - the 'Twort/d'Herelle phenomenon', was one of microbiology's fifty most significant events during the past 125 years. No mention of sunlight/UV.

I asked Antony for a message for current phage scientists so it is all noted down. 

I am enjoying reading the biography. It is so funny in places that I am laughing loudly and at other times so tragic that I am gasping out, "Oh no!"
In other eras it would have made a Shakespearean play or a Gilbert and Sullivan operetta. Certainly the story is told with style and humour and also scientific authority.



Here's a little gem.

He's quoting Sir Philip Manson-Bahr, a leading expert in tropical diseases,
who wrote this in 1964 when in his eighties about diphtheria in the 1st World War.

"The Director of Medical Services issued an order that: 'this epidemic must now cease', upon which it ceased, and all subsequent cases were described as tonsillitis. That is how some of the directors worked in those days."

They wouldn't work like that these days of course, would they? 


He also gave me a little red Penguin book from 1949 price one shilling and sixpence - one of about a dozen copies that Frederick Twort had obtained at the time. His own article is followed by d'Herelle's article, who was writing about World War 2. Apparently the use of phage was general in the German and Japanese armies; in Russia - in civil medicine as well as in the army. He described the testing and treatment of bubonic plague in Annam 1920, Egypt 1926, southern Russia 1940s, and cholera in the Punjab 1927, Patna, Assam, China and Japan.

It sounds to me as if both bacteriologists did a darned good job and got very little thanks, unlike the director chaps on comfortable pensions.



Today the postman brought me another little gem from Antony Twort. It was a press cutting from The Independent 13 June 1998 approaching 50 years since the birth of the National Health Service in 1948.  He had qualified that same year so the article was how he had fitted into the system. He pointed out that there was the anxiety about lay administration and who was in control. He recalled the Christmas show that year when they all sang a song: "The Army of Clerks has Won the Day". I can't help whistling that old tune - Mademoiselle from Armentiers. I shall have to ask him for the new words, because they might be useful ...........

Thank you Mike J for sending the genealogy of Ernest Hanbury Hankin 1865-1939. British born and bred, (and educated at St John's College, Cambridge) he went on to be chemical examiner, Government analyst and bacteriologist of the United Provinces and Central Provinces of India from 1892 for many years, "where in the face of a good deal of opposition he was able to perform great services in the prevention of epidemics of cholera".  

Presumably that was human opposition but there were other, practical difficulties to be overcome. Hankin's 1896 account, published in French but also available in English, tells an absolutely gruesome tale of dead bodies being ripped to pieces by the huge turtles in the Jamuna river, whilst he was taking his water samples to test the effluvium for microbes. He dealt these turtles a powerful blow with heavy bamboo and he still couldn't easily drive them away. He kindly described these turtles as wonderful undertakers! 

So all of you scientists who want to quote his brave and painstaking input into the story of bacteriophages, please would you check that you are correctly identifying him as E.H. - and not M.E. - a mistake which has crept into some notable publications and is being perpetuated by online thingies like Wikipedia.

And while we are checking the history, I am looking out for C.E.Nelson, F.R.C.S. -  a British surgeon who, maybe even earlier than Hankin, confirmed the purity of the water from the Ganges, and how it kept well for drinking, even on long sea journeys. 

All of these scientific observations and studies have contributed to what we know about the healing power of bacteriophages today. Considering that the River Jordan was referred to in the Old Testament (2 Kings) as having healing properties, it explains the origin of baptism by immersion, and the traditional floating of the dead on rafts, along the sacred rivers in India. The dangerous bacteria - dysentery and cholera, are defeated purely and simply, in next to no time, by the invisible bacteriophages in the water.

Hence, science, nature and religion join together.

I am reminded of my dear old US Veteran friend Roy, may he rest in peace. I still chuckle over his joke - how do you make holy water?  You have to imagine his quiet Texas accent as he was driving his huge truck through torrential rain and floods.

"You put it on the stove and boil the devil out of it."


In the UK this week there are some 'India in London' events. One of these is a theatre production at Sadler's Wells, with a discussion afterwards. It is all about the River Ganges and bacteriophages. The tickets are free so my friends and I might see you there. It's sponsored by the Wellcome Trust. Click on page "2008" for more details.

The research into Myra's dramatic recovery from a burst appendix has led me, first of all, to Major-General P.H. Mitchiner, the famous British surgeon from Reigate whose name is spelled incorrectly on the NHS hospital ward signage and elsewhere.

The next revelation was medically trained scientist F W Twort's original archives in London. He was so misquoted and under-reported. His lifetime's work on phages was not given the credit and respect it deserves. I am in contact with his son and biographer, Dr Antony Twort, who lives not far away from here. We are comparing notes and meeting up for tea this weekend.

Evidently the authors of standard phage textbooks have failed to access these primary sources of information so it will be my pleasure to start a brand new notebook and ultimately put the record a bit straighter.

There is another British scientist whose discoveries have been rather 'taken over' by others or ignored. Hankin was working for the British government in India. Even in the 1890s he was collecting data  about the Ganga and the Jamuna rivers. He discovered an antiseptic in the water that has a powerful bactericidal action on the cholera germ.

Hands up those who have spotted in his famous paper that human excrement is rendered harmless under the sun.

Any volunteers to tell that to the hospital management teams in 2008, please? Mitchiner was taught it a century ago.

You can check out my latest research story and leave a comment at this website: www.sciscoop.com.

The exact page reference is: http://www.sciscoop.com/story/2008/6/6/64137/33802

Here's a short story for you that has kept me happily occupied with researching for the last few days. It's about Myra, a neighbour of mine here in Reigate.

 http://www.relax-well.co.uk/Gangrene_medicine.html

There are some well-known names including royalty, plus photos, references and archives.  
(approx. 1800 words)







.

Today is 29th April - exactly one year since the Amazing Phage adventure officially began with the first flight to the USA, before going on to Canada, Georgia and Poland.

Now there are several notebooks full of information, dozens of autographs in the Winston Churchill book that I was given, about 9 hours of video footage, hundreds of photographs, 24 mini-videos on YouTube whilst I have been practising simple editing skills -  and thousands of emails! The official 20 page report was published in October, and in June of this year I shall be going to the Guildhall in the City of London to receive my silver medallion. I think there would be less than 4000 people who have ever been given this award so, to me, it will be a very special occasion and a great honour. 

The next piece of news is that I have accepted an invitation from Reigate Hill Probus Club for September 15th on the subject of "Amazing Phage".  So all the video footage needs to be edited and narrated, to produce a half-hour programme suitable for an audience of retired professional and business people.  I am not going to say much! Thank goodness it was possible to go to the Evergreen Meeting in August as an extra visit - some of the video footage taken there is really super, and probably all the phage scientists who were at the barbecue and the salmon bake will find that they are in the finished programme - and even if not, they will recognise lots of people from all over the world. There are also the doctors and nurses, and patients who have received phage therapy in all the countries I visited, including the US phage clinical trial with woundcare, and a brief visit to the hospital in London where the Phase 2 clinical trial had taken place with persistent ear infections (successfully).

It is rather fitting that September 15th will be the anniversary of Battle of Britain Day. Winston Churchill was the Prime Minister at the time. Actually he was a regular visitor to Reigate, my home town, over many years, and during both World Wars. He used to visit socially with his wife, Clementine, since he was in the same circle of friends as King Edward VII and the Hon. Mrs Ronnie Greville. He also visited on business and even held secret meetings here sometimes. It is also rather interesting that the hotel where the Amazing Phage programme will first be shown is one of the very same buildings used as Military Headquarters for General Montgomery during WW2!

I shall be taking along a toy phage and a toy MRSA superbug, so that the audience can get the idea, and of course some real phage. The programme will then be available on the internet and probably as a limited edition DVD - reserve your copy now. There is a lot of work to be done before then .................... Thanks everyone for your interest during this year.

This was the subject of the last talk at a UK bacteriophage conference on Friday afternoon, when the results of a randomised double-blind Phase 2 clinical trial were announced.

The answer is: Yes.  





Here's a 3 minute video slide show based on the bacteriophage conference meeting -  watch out for the surprise at the end! Enjoy.... :)

As from today, the Churchill Fellows Report about The Health Value Of Bacteriophages is online for posterity on the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust website at  http://www.wcmt.org.uk/public/reports/168_1.pdf - "a very suitable external link" and sufficiently authoritative for the Wikipedia Phage Therapy page apparently. 
...........................................................................................................................................................



Secondly, today's news from DEFRA, and if you are looking for postgrad scholarship schemes to apply for, please read the last paragraph first:

 

"Many thanks for your email including your report which provides an interesting update on some of the work in this area. I am sorry for my delay in replying.

In terms of further developments in Defra since our last correspondence I can update you on some research work which has been continuing throughout 2007 and on plans for upcoming research.

In one project (OZ0325)  we have been working with the egg production industry to evaluate  the use of phage therapy in laying flocks of domestic birds infected with Salmonella enteritidis with the aim of supporting the industry in meeting EU targets to reduce disease prevalence in flocks. You may also be interested to note that we are running another project (OZ0610)  to consider the presence of Campylobacter phages in the farm environment and whether the presence of phages affects the recovery of Campylobacter. We would expect to publish the final reports of these projects on the Defra website towards the end of 2009. Summaries of the projects can be found at

Project OZ0325  http://randd.defra.gov.uk/Default.aspx?Menu=Menu&Module=More&Location=None&ProjectID=14389&FromSearch=Y&Publisher=1&SearchText=oz0325&SortString=ProjectCode&SortOrder=Asc&Paging=10#Description

Project OZ0610  http://randd.defra.gov.uk/Default.aspx?Menu=Menu&Module=More&Location=None&ProjectID=13370&FromSearch=Y&Publisher=1&SearchText=oz0610&SortString=ProjectCode&SortOrder=Asc&Paging=10#Description

The researchers may publish their research either through journals or by presenting at relevant conferences before this time. If you would like to send me more details of the conferences planned for 2008 then I would happily pass them on to the teams involved.

The Food Standards Agency with joint funding from Defra, will be reviewing their strategy for reducing Campylobacter this year. The FSA is commissioning a six-month review of all on-farm interventions  and  strategies for the control of Campylobacter in chicken  and for prioritising research in this area. The use of bacteriophage therapy will be considered along with other interventions.

Furthermore you may be interested to note that the FSA is seeking candidates for their postgraduate scholarship scheme. In the area of meat hygiene, proposals in meat production are welcomed that address methodology to reduce Salmonella in pigs, in particular pre-, pro- and syn-biotic dietary interventions and pre and post harvest bacteriophage control. The deadline for applications is 29th Feb 08." "In terms of the FSA scholarship, more information can be found at http://www.food.gov.uk/science/researchpolicy/researchfunding/scholarshipscheme/"

from: Surveillance, Zoonoses, Epidemiology and Risk
Food and Farming Group
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Phages can be Phun - here's a little collection of photos from my travels in Georgia, Poland and USA showing the health value of bacteriophages simply - 80 days in 8 minutes.

 
And what do scientists say about it so far?

"Looks really good"

"Photos, great idea"

Israelis join exclusive science club
Jerusalem Post, Israel - 7 hours ago
By JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH Tel Aviv University has hit the jackpot, with three of its scientists included in the list of 50 of the world's leading innovators ...
The therapeutic potential of phage therapy stems from the fact that it does not affect mammalian cells and therefore results in no adverse effects. ...
.
Congratulations to Professor Beka Solomon. The great value of phages for humankind was made clear right from the start in her presentations in Toronto during May and Olympia during August.

Hopefully the forthcoming announcements of this success in various editions of "Scientific American" will increase public awareness and also spark significant investment into these technologies - plus international cooperation.

If you're looking for stocking stuffers for scientists there are some new GiantMicrobe designs in soft toys, including Maggot, MRSA, Penicillin and T4-Bacteriophage. 

Click on the links to order and see the whole range including E.coli, Salmonella, Staph, Pneumonia etc. :
http://www.giantmicrobes.com/affiliates/idevaffiliate.php?id=127_0_1_7

T4 bacteriophage - 'Exotics'


MRSA - 'Infirmaries'
















Maggot - 'Critters'







They ask us to note that due to manufacturing constraints, there are a limited number of T4 and Penicillin available. In order to manage demand, these items are being made available at an introductory price of $12.95.

Penicillin - 'Exotics'

People are asking me what will I be doing next, now that the report is written and out there.

Well, that is only the start. At the moment I am creating a PowerPoint presentation about my travels -  '80 days with a Churchill Fellowship' but be warned. In this one there is not much at all about bacteriophages -  there are too many other things that you would enjoy.  What about all that fun in Poland on the gnome hunt?

There is a whole photo gallery just devoted to that.
http://www.amazingphage.info/page23.htm.

And there is the statue of the Angel in the Botanical Gardens  -  the giant hairy spider in the pet shop - the cows in the snow-covered fields in the Caucasus mountains - the bed bug bites - the Buddy Holly tribute - the drama of the little boating accident - the magnificent lock on the door of the university - the mysterious hole in the middle of the road - George Washington - various sewers - Niagara Falls at night - funny trees - naughty nighties - a British bulldog - the fantastic swimming pool where I got to wear a hat and found loads more gnomes - the sulphur bath - all sorts of things. There was the underground tour in Seattle too-  and the daring ride I went on just by the Seattle Space Needle. That was scary fun but no photos. There is the story of the incredible flying car, too, the 'Do not feed the cowboys'  poster and the joke about how you make holy water. And how does one manage to see the very latest movie preview when your credit cards are all frozen by the bank? Thank goodness for friends.There may be one or two sciencey pictures just to explain why I went all that way - and of course, a picture or YouTube video clip to illustrate the maggot therapy when you might have to close your eyes, but of course you can always read the official report. You could even join in the discussion at my favourite science blogging site -  the address is http://www.sciencebase.com/science-blog/viruses-versus-bacteria.html. 

It will be fun to share some of these adventure stories with you. Do say hello on Facebook if you like.

Here's one of the gnomes -  the Pigeonist - on a flying visit.

To complete the story of Amazing Phage, we needed a good quality diagram showing the way that bacteriophages infect bacteria. I am pleased to say that Encyclopaedia Britannica have done the honours. They have also very kindly granted me permission to include their diagram in a slide show. Now who would like to invite me to share this scientific adventure story in an illustrated talk?


By courtesy of Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc., copyright 1994; used with permission.



























My official 20-page report for the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust is now available as a signed, printed copy (£10) or downloadable free of charge from this website (click here).  There is also a half-page news item in a local Surrey newspaper (click here), and some very welcome and appreciative feedback so far from colleagues in Texas, Virginia, Illinois, Poland, Georgia, New Zealand, Scotland and England. This includes a very prompt and positive response that originated from the corridors of power in the Houses of Parliament.

Thank you. Your response helps to make it all worthwhile.























..

Wednesday 12th September was the final day of research in Poland - there were several appointments all lined up for a whistlestop tour of official departments and organisations that are the specialists in Warsaw.

But the day started with a surprise conversation: "We are hunting for new genes", said Dr Lobocka. "This is looking far ahead." We must remember that she is an international expert in molecular biology, having also worked in the USA at the National Institute of Health and also at Imperial College, London..

She explained -  and I hope I have understood!

The money that investors will put into the genetic research of phages will not only benefit medical and therapeutic research. The main point to make is that there is a huge perspective in finding new genes that encode proteins that will be useful for industry. This is a great revelation!

The visits that morning enabled me to understand this more fully. The science involves proteases that chop up genomes, comparing genomes of different phages that are far more diverse than the mammalian range. Got that?

We were soon on our way to Warsaw University of Life Sciences (the oldest agricultural academic school in Poland) Faculty of Agriculture and Biology (Dept of Biochemistry) where Malgorzata lectures as a professor. The head of the department of Biochemistry is Professor Wieslaw Bielawski, and Dr Slawomir Orzechowski showed me round the labs. This is part of a very large campus.

Next we were at the National Medicines Institute headed by Prof. Waleria Hryniewicz, and shown their work by Dr Ewa Sadowy.

I was able to visit the new Biology Faculty of Warsaw University just long enough to take a photograph of the entrance but the whole building does look very substantial indeed.

Next I was back at the Institute of Biochemistry and Biophysics of the Polish Academy of Sciences, where there are five different labs, and I was introduced to the Head of the group, Professor Monika Hryniewicz. Here was an amazing story about phages that she is happy for me to tell you.

In the 1950's when she was about 7 or 8 years old, she was suffering from a chronic throat infection. Her mother was a pharmacist at that time in Warsaw, and having identified the exact bacteria causing the infection, she decided to find the exact phage that would kill those bacteria. We all know where we can find those bacterial phages, don't we? Well, she was successful. Having purified them as necessary, she gave the phages to her young daughter and within very little time at all, suddenly she was better again. How about that?

There were other places to explore and people to be introduced to, including the Genetically Modified Organisms Lab which is underground. Jarastaw Ciesla is in charge of that lab, including some special equipment which is $150,000-worth of real time PCR. I was also shown the dedicated bacteriophage biology and biotech network server in the Department of BioInformatics.  I was especially interested to see the confocal microscopes and the regular fluorescent microscope, and the automatic sequencer with 48 capilllaries thanks to Dr Jacek Nowak, which enables us to learn about genomes.

I hope the Department of Health in the UK are a little bit more aware nowadays of the benefits of UV light, laminar air flow and separate air supplies to ensure that rooms are not contaminated. Goodness knows I have written often enough and sent the Minister some evidence and suggestions, for example from France. Anyway, there in one new lab in the Institute is the certified equipment altogether - it is the Staphylococcus pathogen lamp where a certified UV lamp is obligatory. Yes!

Next was the biggest surprise. 




We were to visit the head office of the Polish Academy of Sciences because Professor Gorski is the Vice President, and he spends 60% of his time in Warsaw. Much to my surprise and delight, I was to learn that these offices are on the 26th floor of the Palace of Culture and Science - that rather unusual building that I described two weeks ago - a gift from Stalin to the people of Warsaw. Actually it is rather nice inside and the view is fantastic. It was good fun asking for a photo to mark the occasion (standing beside the Polish eagle on the wall), and then we went for a delicious late lunch.


The evening was also busy - making sure that I was spelling names correctly (let alone pronouncing them!) and photocopying some interesting abstracts from the phage conference that I had attended at Evergreen College in the States a few weeks ago. The library is brilliant.

Best of all was the fact that, since it was the evening, I could laugh out loud at the brilliantly amusing photographs on the library walls by the photocopier. Picture this - a haystack with the back view of four or five scientists wearing white coats - all carefully examining it. The messages were for all languages.

And there was a tree, with a man in a white coat with a basket. He was quietly gathering multitudes of brightly-coloured antibiotics off the branches. Yeah right!

Thank you Poland for a fascinating and enjoyable visit. It will need several photograph albums but I hope you will all enjoy browsing through them when they are completed.

Along with all this news about genomes from Warsaw, you may find it refreshing to look at the collection of gnomes in Wroclaw.

The draft version of the official Winston Churchill Fellowship Amazing Phage report is currently being prepared for publication, and there is video footage of all these visits for a future DVD, subject to suitable sponsorship.


Meanwhile you may be pleased to know that on my return to the UK ---- I have had a reply from the UK Ministry of Defence. No specific comments - but they do send their best regards, along with thanks for the information, and apologies for the delay in replying. Phew!

____________The end______________
 

Now I am in Warsaw again for the last couple of days of this unique Winston Churchill Travelling Fellowship. This time I am a guest of the Department of Microbial Biochemistry at the Institute of Biochemistry and Biophysics of the Polish Academy of Sciences.


It is a great pleasure to meet Dr. Malgorzata Lobocka  and to be visiting the labs.  Already in discussion, my travelling companion Brad (an international educationalist) and I have heard how necessary it is going to be for phage scientists to cooperate and collaborate internationally, in a multi-disciplinary fashion. What is needed is a fully structured and coordinated plan rather than just 'more research'. Then there can be accelerated progress rather than simply repetition with an unnecessary waste of scarce financial resources for scientific research. Dr. Lobocka also advocates big national centres to lead the way, rather than small companies. The overarching principle must be one of integrity.


There are more possibilities for the future.


Very soon it will be time to submit my Fellowship Report to the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust entitled "The Health Value Of Bacteriophages". It seems very fitting that these recommendations can be stated firmly amongst the written conclusions and therefore serve as a guiding light for the future.



Any questions?

I am learning all I can. The main job today is to complete our dwarf hunt since I am so curious by nature. Will we find the dwarf that is riding a pigeon? Will we find the naked one? He only has an umbrella to protect his modesty, silly chap. Will we find the one doing his washing by the river? Will we find out which of the dwarves is/are absent without leave?

We have also seen a marketing niche for someone - we cannot find any little models of these dwarves to buy as souvenirs -  and horror or horrors - the dwarves are not featured in even the latest editions of the tourist guides- the Rough Guide to, or the DK book on Poland.

Here's a video I borrowed off Google so you can see for yourselves. There are also four little dwarves that live at the public swimming pool so that's somewhere else to go today before the music concert.

As for all the amazing new stuff on phages, it will be a great story and an exciting adventure with all the ingredients for a best seller but there is far, far too much to put on a blog. You would be bored silly.


My main concern globally is to check that P.T. would definitely stand for Phage Therapy and not Poor Treatment.

The Institute of Immunology is named after Prof. Hirszfeld. It is very interesting to read a moving article about his life's work on blood groups in particular, and we have him to thank for bringing his collection of phages to Wroclaw when he was appointed to the academic staff of the university in 1944-5.

Today, being a Saturday, it was lovely to do some more sightseeing. The highlight was to visit the University buildings.  If you ever go to Wroclaw, do please make the effort to venture inside and remember to charge the battery for your camera first!

The architectural features have been expertly restored and embellished. They are breathtakingly complex and ornate. Yet amongst them there are state-of-the-art exhibitions of the history of the university - numerous Nobel prizewinners featured in pride of place, plus references to famous names of course including Alzheimer and Bunsen but also composers such as Brahms and Grieg and Berlioz who would have held performances in the music rooms, resulting in their names being engraved in stone for future generations to see. In the upper rooms there are more large black and white photographs of formal occasions as well as historic moments. Amongst them, you would see about five photographs featuring Professor Hirszfeld - when he was lecturing in the Medical Faculty - when he was with a group of medical students at the hospital -  and when he was up there at the front of a huge audience on a major academic formal occasion with the Dean and the Rector leading the proceedings, a military personage standing there in uniform, with women wearing glorious hats to mark the ceremony. There was a lot of damage during the war but except for the photographs, you would have seen virtually  no evidence of that nowadays. The knowledge and learning have certainly not been destroyed. They have been built upon and honoured.


Well, hats off to Poland. Many, many thanks.

It is going to take a long time to pass on all the messages and information about what is happening in Poland with phages.

So for the moment, I have just browsed through the photos on my camera over the last couple of days and listed some highlights for you. We shall have to wait before they can go on the gallery!

In reverse order -

Yesterday evening I was able to tke a photo at the very end of the concert in St Mary Magdalene Cathedral - the first event of Wroclaw's Wratislavia Cantans - Missa Solemnis in D major, Opus 123 by Beethoven. It is a sacred masterpiece. We started with a minute's silence with great respect for Pavarotti.  The English soloists included Susan Gritton (soprano) whose family surname would ring a bell for people from my home town.

During the days at the Institute this week, we have covered a multitude of topics - there is a photo of a letter from an Iraqi doctor asking for information on phages. There is an exciting story, still waiting to develop - Ministry of Defence and British Embassies in USA and Georgia please note!

I had the privilege of detailed discussions with phage scientists and doctors. I would especially like to mention Dr Krystyna Dabrowska who is doing some unique research and publishing some key papers on anti-tumour activity of phages.

There are some very happy photos because yesterday was the name day of Dr Beata Weber-Dabrowska - she was receiving lots of flowers and visitors so I had the pleasure of meeting Maria, a paediatrician who is doing some tests with phages on topical dermatitis. I gather that colonised Staph aureus bacteria may be creating some sort of allergic response. The hospital BioEthics Committee permission was all that was required.

I was invited to attend three outpatient appointments  too in the treatment clinic downstairs with Dr Ryszard Miedzybrodski -  Professor Gorski and I had been talking earlier about whether he considers there are really any side effects or not! Well, the query came up about effects on the liver - this little question had been planted in the public's minds decades ago but where is the proof yeah or ney? Well, right there and then we discovered there was documentary proof that any liver effects had occurred before phage therapy started, not after. Phage therapy is only provided after other methods have been unsuccessful. I was given the names of a couple of antibiotics that this patient had been receiving previously (at her cost).

I was invited to photograph her treatment consultation and examination before discharge prior to corrective surgery on a hip prosthesis that had previously been done incorrectly, as shown by the Xray.

Professor Gorski explained to me about a forthcoming conference he is organising on Dual Use. He has shown me a wonderful letter of support that he has recently received for this from the Director General of UNESCO!

There are also various snaps of recent Polish press coverage about their work - including the cover of Polish Newsweek, the cover of Mikrobiologika, and another 'magazyn'. There are further articles and news of a couple of TV programmes, one done in Germany with an excellent electron micrograph. I was later fascinated to discover an article on the Institute's website entitled "On the brink of a fresh phage in history".  Do look it up in Google for yourself. I have now read the original and please note the date of the newspaper is 5th April 1984. In my opinion it is an absolute disgrace that the authorities have done nothing about the good advice of that science writer. It was 23 years ago!  You can figure out the sums for yourselves but I am just very glad that none of my family have died from bacterial infections in that time. We have suffered though.

I have also been shown the purification process using column chromatography techniques, plus a great photo of E.coli bacteria infected with phage. I have had a chance to show the Polish scientists the book of abstracts from the Evergreeen conference and mentioned the new international phage conference scheduled for next July in Scotland. I hope someone is going to invite Professor Gorski as a key speaker.

This afternoon I hope to take a photo at Professor Gorski's lecture at the International Congree of the Polish Pharmacological Society - to be delivered in Polish I think!

Meanwhile I have a nice little photo of a couple of the dwarves in the city centre. My favourites are the Sisyphuses in Swidnicke St. There are many legends of how they arrived. One is of a mysterious rumble that was heard one night, accompanied by the muffled singing "Roll it, roll it, pal."  In the morning, Wroclaw's astonished citizens found a long row of beautiful granite (?) balls all carefully set in order. Only a few people still do not believe in dwarves.

PS. I just wanted to add that Professor Gorski very kindly asked the permission of his audience if he could, under the circumstances, give his lecture in English!  Wow, it was really interesting. We really must try to keep up with all this - he was explaining aspects of phage that I heard no mention of at the conference a few weeks ago. Well, it's all happening right here in Poland. What I hadn't realised was that phages could attach themselves by their heads, rather than just the tails. Basically, we must open our minds to realise that phages don't only have an anti-bacterial effect - they also can prvent inflammatory diseases of the bowel, they can improve renal function in transplantation, they show anti-viral activity (this is brilliantly neat -  they can do this simply because they are viruses and can therefore block the harmful ones!) And apart from that, they have that anti-cancerous tumour effect that I have already mentioned. There is also very strong evidence of phage safety and if you would like to follow up all the evidence, go ahead and ask Professor Gorski. His last comment in the lecture was that phages in our bodies must be contributing to our immune system. The audience were mainly Polish speaking pharmacologists but I have simply extracted some little nuggets of knowledge that need to be explained to the general public, I consider.

PPS. This is very important. The third patient I was introduced to at the treatment clinic had heart surgery a few years ago and unfortunately he contracted MRSA deep in his chest wound, where pieces of metal had been inserted into the sternum.

In common with many other patients, the MRSA did not respond to strong antibiotic treatment. The Polish hospital authorities felt obliged to offer phage therapy so they referred this gentleman to have treatment here at the Hirszfeld Institute in Wroclaw. After all, it is  the Polish Academy of Sciences and a government-funded department! Naturally, the patient is very pleased to pass on the message to us in the UK that this is possible and the treatment is working. And I thought you would like to know. What do you think about that?

First I can update you on the Rommel riddle - I am advised that it was a different Rommel - one German and one Polish. Simple eh!

Secondly I can confirm that I am collecting lots of information about phage therapy in Wroclaw and will be reporting on it in a few days. Yesterday I had the great honour of meeting the Director of the Institute, Professor Jack Szepietowski and also received a phone call welcoming me from Professor Gorski, the Director of the Bacteriophage department. Meanwhile his associates in the department are showing me their work and very helpfully answering queries about the points that we would love to have explained. More news in a few days.

Now I can tell you what my New Zealand friend Brad is doing for her research project whilst  in Wroclaw.

It's all about the gnomes, goblins and dwarves that touched down here on November 8 in the year 780. The latest one arrived April 26, 2007, to the cheers of a crowd waving red umbrellas. So far I have photos of three of them to share with you, all in good time. Officially they only speak German, Czech, Latin or French. They are a direct tribute to the Orange Alernative Movement (a key part in the anti-communist protests in the late 80s). People sang Stalinist anthems in front of the chimpanzee cage at Wroclaw Zoo in a 2000-strong parade calling for the release of Santa Claus. The reference document is 'Wroclaw In Your Pocket' - excellent!

Yes, so far we have only seen three of these gnomes. Brad's mission is to find the others. Will she complete her task to find every single one (14 - and also uncover the mystery of the gnome that is Absent Without Leave? They do have tracking devices but we are going by female intuition and empathy with said creatures. Will our delay to the UK be delayed should the mission not be accomplished in time?

Meanwhile the phage research continues apace. I have my press release to write by next week, oh heck!

It is possible to fly direct to Wroclaw whereas our journey was via Warsaw where it was very straightforward to book intercity seats on the train for a relaxing five-hour journey taking the time to read, rest and look at the scenery. A train ticket is very cheap, your window seat is reserved and you even get a free cup of coffee and a biscuit - how about that for service! Watch out though - just on the outskirts of Wroclaw is a small railway station also called Wroclaw. Luckily the guard whisked our luggage back onto the train for the extra ten minutes otherwise perhaps we would have been rather stranded.

The station building actually looks a bit like a castle. The welcome at the hotel was warm and helpful, and in no time we had discovered the large shopping mall right next door with numerous eating places and enough fashion shops to kit out a good proportion of the young people in this lovely old city. We have not spotted any obesity, thankfully, even though there are a couple of fast food outlets and lots of icecream parlours in evidence. There is really very little litter either. Well done Poland!

Wandering around the old town was an absolute delight - it is rather like a mini-Prague perhaps. The Botanical Gardens are first rate, and right in the centre is a bust of Carl Linnaeus who inspired it. At some stage I shall be able to add lots of photos to the Poland Gallery and you will see not just the magnificent variety of plants expertly labelled and displayed but the general spectacular layout, the educational features, uniquely brilliant works of artistry and nature's own creations - butterflies, frogs, even snakes so close up that we could have stroked them if we had known they are harmless.

Wroclaw is the location for the 2012 football event - not surprisingly, it would be rather a good spot for investors. Maybe they would like to know about the special potential with phages, since the Hirszfeld Institute of Immunology and Experimental Therapy is just down the road (2 zlotis on the tram - 40p). It is another phage centre of excellence and the reason for my visit. Ha! 


I was told today whilst being transported back to the hotel by car that I'm a VIP!


Ha ha!

The first day was a feat of endurance, since I had only had one hour of sleep. But my New Zealand friend Brad accompanying me (and her nephew Jack doing the driving) arrived with the car at 4.30am. The flight was uneventful except for an abortive landing attempt. Just as we were approaching the runway in Warsaw, a rescue helicopter appeared out of nowhere and our pilot was asked to make a sharp re-ascent into the skies again for another 10-15 minutes. There were some upset tummies at this time!  The cabin crew were busy asking people to sit down, sit down. sit down since it would have been rather dangerous otherwise. Anyway, we eventually had a perfectly smooth landing and the captain spoke to us all very positively, explaining what had happened and joking that there would be no extra charge for the tour round Warsaw! It was an interesting skyline, dominated by one huge building of controversial old Soviet design. (when Big Brother Was Watching You) - I think it is built with 40 million bricks.  In contrast there are numerous modern corporate high rise buildings whereas in the suburbs, there are loads and loads of flats, all concrete and uniform. Yet in between, there are 'Legoland' style rows of properties and the vast sweeping river that carves its own path.

We took the bus from the airport to save money, avoiding the taxi drivers touting for business, and after several miles it was clearly time to disembark, by the railway station. What a hassle - we were on the wrong side of the road for where we needed to be! There was no way of crossing the street with my suitcase even though the hotel was a short stroll away. By the bus stops, the only passenger lift for disabled people was broken.  Between us, Brad and I negotiated the luggage down into the subway with some ingenuity, scouting ahead for the best routes, and also teamwork and offers of help from local people (women!) carrying the suitcase up the next flight of steps. I was so worried about that sacro-iliac joint again after similar difficulties in Chicago back in May, necessitating extra expense with physiotherapy and much less sightseeing than I would have hoped, considering this is a Travelling Fellowship. The problem is the weight of the paperwork and the books, the old laptop and battery chargers for the camera, video etc..

In a few hours we had located an excellent vegetarian cafe, the banks, the shopping mall, the street layout and also found out about the Philharmonic Orchestra playing that evening as part of the Chopin Festival. So that was really stunning. Everyone was beautifully dressed, the auditorium was almost full to capacity, the chandeliers were dripping with magnificent crystal and the orchestra and soloists were playing to perfection. "BRAVO", shouted the lady in front of us holding her posy of flowers, at the end of the Brahms concerto, just before the wonderful applause and even a solo piece as an encore. She wasn't there after the interval but we had been people-watching and admiring the outfits.

We moved forward a couple of rows to the better seats (as you do) and next, it was that magnificent Tchaikovsky piano concerto that brought goosebumps to my arms and tears to my eyes. Now, what was it a signature tune for? The soloist's wrists were practically dancing in the air above the piano keys with expression and delight.

The evening compensated in some way for my exhaustion and great disappointment that the laptop's main switch laptop had actually failed to survive the journey. No photos for this blog yet then!

The next two full days in Warsaw were a chance to visit the museums and gain some awareness of the vast wealth of science and culture there is, adding so much to the political story of human rights, war and peace. Visiting Warsaw would be a quick way for anyone to learn - it would certainly be an excellent visit to inspire any UK student's interest in 20th century politics, philosophy and economics, and meanwhile fill them with the awe and wonder of science, culture and architecture.

We walked and walked, admiring the magnificent building reconstructions over the last 60 years. We had soon located the main landmarks. We visited the brand new museum of the Warsaw Uprising and I must say, I did appreciate the relative peace and gentleness of the children's area telling the same story but through their eyes, plus the rose garden where there are old war photographs but with touches of colour added to them. I had found the darkness and the small faded print of the terrible story far too much for my eyesight and my nerves. However the basic message was plain, along with various quotes and artefacts that tell the public how the Polish Home Army were so let down that August by the Allies who for ages just did nothing to help.

750,000 deaths?
84% of the buildings destroyed.

Interestingly there are various references to the way that Georgian soldiers had helped. There is even an obelisk in the Freedom Garden, commemorating the link in several different languages - Polish, Georgian and English. Strange that the Georgians and the Poles both make use of phage therapy - as do the Germans. The UK and USA have some catching up to do.

Here are some of the texts being exhibited from the Polish perspective. Perhaps we should contemplate them.

1. The Big Three

'In 1943, at the conference in Teheran, the leaders of the Big Three determine the postwar distribution of power. Polish leaders are not aware of this agreement. The Allies remain indifferent to the outbreak of the Rising. The British government is untruthful in reporaching the Polish authorities for the lack of coordination on the timing of the Rising. All throughout August the Allies procrastinate in recognising the Home Army as an allied army, so the Germans feel free to murder the captured insurgents. The British press is silent at first, and then later a significant part underestimates the significance of the Rising and tried to justify Stalin's actions.'

2. The Anglo American Press of the Rising

'Only exceptionally does someone notice in the Rising a "great contribution to the Allied cause". Lieut. Ward writes fot the Times from Warsaw. George Orwell strongly condemns the "low and cowardly posture of the British press" in the Tribune.'

3. Victims of Uncle Joe's Policy

...'Only Stalin is satisfied -  he can avoid the accusation of not having helped the Rising'.

Several hours later, I appreciated the grandeur and quietness of the much older museum in the central square - a mile or so away in Warsaw's Old Town. The ladies ushered the last one or two visitors fairly quickly because it was late Friday afternoon -  but I managed to notice a bronze bust of General Rommel to add to this amazing phage story!

As far as I knew until then, Rommel was a General in the German Army who had led the troops in North Africa and they had all been issued with packs of phages as a safeguard against bacterial infections.  I had not realised that, from what I was being informed, Rommel was a Polish General. The museum text described that he was captured by the Germans during 1939-45. So that is puzzling to me as yet.

"A bust of General Juliuz Rommel, Stefan Chmielarski c.1935, bronze, mould.

(1881-1967) Polish Army General. In September 1939 he first commanded the "Lodz" Army and later the "Warsaw" Army. From 1939 to 1945 in German captivity."

There are a couple of other little stories about this first visit to Warsaw - and much more closely associated with phages. If you are a phage buff, you will know that phages are found all over the place, especially in sewage. Whilst walking round Warsaw it was interesting to see that a new sewer was being installed in one of the roads, and the pavement was right beside it! So there is now a rather close up view of a sewer, as if you wanted to know what they look like. Perhaps the Polish health and safety approach is a rather practical one - if you happen to be standing too close and you fall in, that's your own tough luck!

Then later as we were walking the route from the Presidential residence to the old Royal Castle, what should be happening but a complete clearance of the road surface and removal of all the tramlines and sewers. Again, right beside us just a few inches away, was a dirty great big sewer  being heaved and shoved out by heavy equipment - bash, bash, bash! There was plenty of time to take close up shots of what was going on, and even a bit of video footage on the mobile phone. In the interests of equality, I think the person in charge was the woman. Between them, they did a great job and on our return an hour or two later, it was all done, the sewer was removed, the hole covered up and the road surface smoothed over with sand just as beautifully as a newly iced cake. Those sewers would have had a very dramatic story to tell, I gather.

Anyway there are plenty more phages in Poland. It is intriguing that sauerkraut, pickles and salami-type meats are also a natural source of phages.  I had sent a very hurried note to a colleague of mine back in England to the effect that at least there are plenty of phages in these Polish supermarkets, and next thing I knew, he had forwarded my message halfway round the world to another phage colleague in Canada! So be aware - if there is a huge increase in the Polish tourist market all of a sudden with rumours going round that you can nip over here and buy phages off the shelf - well, it was just a matter of someone taking my words rather literally.

The next two weeks are the third phase of this Churchill research - currently in Warsaw and then on to Wroclaw. Please revisit regularly for news updates.  Sorry, the photos will have to wait because of technical difficulties with my laptop, but the news should be very interesting!

The wonders of modern science.

Today I was visiting the Marie Curie Museum, situated at her birthplace here in Warsaw. There are some great quotes too:


"What kind of compensation does society give to scholars in return for their splendid self-sacrifice, as a reward for the great deeds done for humanity? ...One's youth and strength, spent in an everyday struggle to live, are the prices to be paid for acceptable working conditions."

and

"I believe international work is a heavy task, but that it is nevertheless indispensable to go through an apprenticeship in it, at the cost of many efforts and also of a real spirit of sacrifice."

and

"We have been given half of the Nobel Prize. I do not know exactly what that represents (...) We are obliged to lecture there during the six months follwing December 10. We did  not go to the ceremonial meeting because it was too complicated to arrange."


and


"We do not know exactly what the essence of radioactivity is, I expect though, that the mysteries of nature shall, with time, once again heed to the labours of a researcher."

And perhaps the same could have been said for phages way back then in the early 20th century. The thing is, we know what phages are now, don't we? Since then, medicine has been transformed by Marie Curie's discoveries but not yet really by phages - unless you happen to be living in one of the countries I have visited this year as part of this Winston Churchill research.

See ya.

The Illinois Governor signed Jeanine Thomas'  bill today after another bitter fight. She has won. MRSA screening in Illinois hospitals starts immediately. This is history and hopefully more states will start.

For further information see my interview with Jeanine back at the end of May as part of this Winston Churchill Fellowship research.

Meanwhile Laura Roberts has written her a 100 words explaining how she has recovered from MRSA by having had phage therapy!

Whilst here in Seattle for a couple of days after the Phage Meeting, I have received a newspaper cutting about one hospital in Wales that has reduced its MRSA levels by 72% over six years by doing the cleaning themselves.

I cannot help but wonder whether that could be even better if we took a leaf out of the book of hospitals overseas: first of all there are the bacteria in the air that the authorities have been told about many times at top level but still there appears to be nothing in the policies. Correct me if I am wrong - I wouldn't know because they usually don't reply.

Secondly there are self-replicating phages of course, that can be used for surfaces etc. etc.. But then, I am repeating myself.  

Come on Sir Trevor - did they show you the email from 14th Feb after your programme?

At the Evergreen International POhage Meeting here in Olympia there are 75 speakers covering a whole range of phage related research.

The key points relating to the health value of bacteriophages are now being emphasised in the Phage Therapy sessions:

for example, the concept that antibacterial therapies would need to have anti-biofilm and anti-bacterial features:

phages could be used as a control strtegy on central venous catheters;

bacteriophage is being used already to control foodborne pathogens and could be extended;

the Phase 2 clinical trial against Pseudomonas aeruginosa is nearing completion in a London hospital;

bacteriophages are used routinely in Georgia for treating open maxillofacial injuries;

bacteriophages break senile plaques in an animal brain model of Alzheimer's Disease so here we have a novel therapeutic avenue;

phages, antibiotics and plant antibacterials are used with newborns in Georgian maternity hospitals and we have seen the data;

the Eliava Institute in Georgia is being renovated and has 90 years of experience with phages - there is much potential in the marketplace and for collaboration worldwide.


Today we shall be hearing more about agriculture - bacteriophages for the control of E coli in cattle; more on food safety; treating Salmonella in chickens; treatng fruit and vegetable produce; and then culminating with more talks on phage therapy. There will be a reference to Anthrax and how phages help in biodefence - and, as I had hoped, a description of the Phages in the Battlefield project which I believe has so much promise and deserves worldwide support at top government level. They appear to have done nothing about it so far in the UK although I brought it to their attention in mid-May. Perhaps the Americans will be more receptive and individuals may of couse ask for action, as I have done.

All of these subjects are referred to in my draft report for the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust which you can read and comment on before I submit it in September/October (after the forthcoming visit to Poland).

Also please see the main menu of this site to view the Evergreen photo gallery and the Phages in the Battlefield slideshow.

You are missing an excellent meeting but hopefully these notes and photos will give you a quick overview for future reference.

There are lots of photos now in the Amazing Phage Evergreen Phage Meeting gallery:  http://www.amazingphage.info/page16.htm

Here's just one:












































...................

Arrived Friday at Seattle for the 17th International Evergreen Phage Meeting at the kind invitation of Professor Betty Kutter, Olympia University. It is a spectacular location here by the Olympic Peninsula - the snow-topped Olympic Mountains provide breath-taking views over towards Canada. There is a wide variety of wildlife, including deer and raccoons, and many beautiful wildflowers by the roadsides, especially as you drive up into the higher ground and survey the magnificent landscape.

The Phage scientists are gathering from all over the world.

This is where I am meeting with them and several people are helping with the finished wording of the Churchill Report, so in effect it will be even more of a combined effort.

Phages have just made their first public appearance on canada dot com. Congratulations to Peggy and friends - here's the exact page, and some UK feedback on her letter:

> Hi grace
>
> I think that is probably the best written outline of bacteriophage
> function I have seen. A very neat nutshell.
>
> Sleep well in Seattle.
>
> Barrie

Yes, next Friday I shall be flying thousands of miles to the 17th Evergreen Phage Biology Meeting. It's a wonderful surprise and a very generous gesture from the organisers. Thanks too, to the Director General of the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust for their help. There are phage scientists from more than 21 countries all over the world - 72 talks and 55 posters.

And will I get to see that Arrowsmith film - the Pulitzer-prizewinning novel by Sinclair Lewis?
Yes.

Neat!

You have to laugh though. On the Wikipedia page for Arrowsmith, would you believe the reviewer didn't make any mention of bacteriophages! Typical. How long will that take for someone to update it? Frankly, I am rather busy.

While we are talking about funding, here is the information about the UK and the 16.5 million GBP available so far. Are we going to have phages included in the research from now on, or not?


http://www.mrc.ac.uk/ApplyingforaGrant/CallsForProposals/TranslationalInfectionResearch/index.htm

Translational Infection Research







The final date for both of these opportunities is October.

Now here's an idea for encouraging phage networking and other strategies that could work well with them too.

European funding!

Perhaps the contributors to the new bacteriophage book and/or the academic institutions will consider submitting an application.

http://www.esf.org/activities/research-networking-programmes/2007-call-for-proposals.html

We could do with some funding for a DVD and some materials too - thanks!

I am pleased to say that the Science and Technology Center in the Ukraine financed 5 bacteriophage projects - total amount about 900,000 USD, so it's about time for Europe to catch up a bit. Can't Europe do better?

Ooh, there is some very interesting news from Poland. It's a preprint of a paper to appear in Adv Hyg Exp Med. and soon to be online anyway.

We believe it should be an important contribution for a wider application of phage therapy. It is entitled:

"Phage therapy of staphylococcal infections (including MRSA) may be less expensive than antibiotic treatment"

Think about it!

Who would like to read it?






Key words: phage, MRSA, cost of therapy, staphylococcal infection
Word count: 1921
Tables: 2
References: 39


Here you are - a quote:

"This is about half the cost of 10-day therapy with vancomycin and several times less compared with the other drugs shown in Table 2." So, we await news of what the MoD and the DoH are going to do about it.



PS 9.07. It is now online at http://www.relax-well.co.uk/less_expensive_than_antibiotics.pdf and several other places.

...

Book review - pdf

Bacteriophage Genetics and Molecular Biology
Edited by Stephen Mc Grath and Douwe van Sinderen
Publication date: 1 July 2007
Publisher: Caister Academic Press, UK
£150

This beautifully produced, hardback book is also manageable in size and clearly a significant investment for any forward-thinking university or hospital library. It would be a source of inspiration and scientific excitement for students and researchers in a variety of fields, including medicine and industry.


There are 36 contributors spanning 11 countries across Europe and North America. The editors start off by providing postal and email addresses for all the co-authors; this will help to encourage respectful networking and sharing of knowledge during the current rapid developments in phage science. Refreshingly, they have decided not to state academic status or qualifications, thus indicating a spirit of egalitarian collaboration and initiative, meanwhile suggesting that times do change, and we are all learning.


The 12 chapters are mostly co-authored by colleagues working locally. The 352 pages include nearly 70 pages of published references, 30 figures and 6 tables, 9 pages of index and 1 colour plate to illustrate some biological chemistry.


The first chapter is an immediate overview, barely touching on the old history of phage science. It simply summarizes the here and now – the way that phage science has played a crucial role in some of the most significant discoveries in biological sciences, especially with DNA genetics and our understanding of viruses, resulting in a Nobel Prize in 1969.


Since then, phages have been widely put to use as model organisms and very handy research tools in the transformation of biological research. We have phages to thank for answering some complex biological questions. Genes and DNA are now in common parlance, and a new genomic era was established thirty years ago, with much work still to do.


We are guided through the multifaceted nature of bacteriophage research, discovering a precious hoard of tiny gems.


For the 21^st century there is very detailed information on the biology, ecology and diverse nature of phages. The authors explain that we now know that phages have a dramatic impact on the ecology of our planet, referring us to key authorities and leaders in the field of phage science and microbiology.


I can particularly commend the chapters on ‘Bacteriophages in Medicine’ and ‘Phage Therapy – The Western Perspective’, since these authors (from Poland and Switzerland, respectively) enlighten us to some unexpected and welcome new avenues for further research and development. For example, besides their clear role as one of the tools we could add to our essential arsenal defending us from antibiotic-resistant bacteria, we are informed of the surprising potential of phages in treating viral infections, and some novel findings in improving and maintaining the immune system.


These chapters would also do a powerful job in allaying some concerns of ‘Doubting Thomases’, as well as providing mostly very readable and even lively accounts of scientific adventure happening right now.


The basic message that runs like a glittering thread through this theme is that the bacteriophages used in medicine are safe. We are advised precisely where to look for the evidence. ‘From a clinical standpoint, phages appear to be innocuous.’


With scientific discoveries being made all the time, perhaps future editions will include breaking news of phages in combination with enzymes, or bio-composite technologies, or multiple concurrent strategies to tackle biofilms and the outcome of the current Phase 2 and Phase 1 clinical trials taking place in London UK, Texas USA and Germany. There are practical opportunities for clinical research in veterinary science and dentistry, as well as human medical and environmental applications. There is also potential for phages to be applied through the lymphatic system to treat serious infections rather than intravenously, filamentous phages for the treatment of Alzheimer’s and aerosol phages that could be put to use on traumatic wounds on modern battlefields.


Regarding clinical trials, the authors call for cooperation with industry, unless public funds can now be allocated for this purpose.


Swiss contributor Brüssow describes phage therapy as ‘a unique medicine, which challenges current pharmacokinetic concepts’. Whereas the safety aspect is clearly documented, the point is made that, as yet, definitive proof of the efficacy of these phage approaches is only provided in a few cases. He advises us that there is some documentation in Russian that could provide detailed evidence from extensive double-blinded prophylaxis and treatment trials.

Meanwhile we are reminded of the strides forward that have been made in New York with Vince Vischetti’s Rockefeller group working on lysins. They have made a great contribution to the world by providing a ‘biological disinfectant’ against a top bioterrorism agent, anthrax.


We are indebted to these scientists for pooling their valuable work into one volume so that students, academics and other interested parties around the world can read and decide for themselves whether phage biology is worth serious investment of time and money. No doubt you will find other highlights worth mentioning. Even the cover of this book is an intriguing work of art.


July 2007

Grace Filby
Churchill Fellow

These two programmes are not new but they do communicate the urgent message about infections very directly. Number 10 Downing Street please note.

The first one features Jeanine, who I went to visit in Chicago a couple of months ago.

Well, blow me down with a feather. I have just had a letter from Number 10. It's in very big writing.

"Dear Ms Filby

The Prime Minister has asked me to thank you for your recent letter. Your comments have been carefully noted.

As the Foreign and Commonwealth Office is responsible for this matter Mr Brown has asked me to pass your letter to that Department so that they may reply to you on his behalf.

Yours sincerely ...."

It took me a couple of minutes to remember what I had written to him about. Oh yes, basically I was asking him if he knew about bacteriophages, and please may I have a brief comment that I can quote in my official report and in the meantime, on my blog. I take it that's a sort of "Wwwell, I do now." 





Thank you very much!

....

ATTORNEY: Doctor, before you performed the autopsy, did you check for a pulse?
WITNESS: No.
ATTORNEY: Did you check for blood pressure?
WITNESS: No.
ATTORNEY: Did you check for breathing?
WITNESS: No.
ATTORNEY: So, then it is possible that the patient was alive when you began the autopsy?
WITNESS: No.
ATTORNEY: How can you be so sure, Doctor?
WITNESS: Because his brain was sitting on my desk in a jar.
ATTORNEY: But could the patient have still been alive, nevertheless?
WITNESS: Yes, it is possible that he could have been alive and practicing law.




























.......

Anyone who is familiar with the Naked Scientists radio and news items on bacteriophages - and science in general - would probably smile at this latest Smartart poem - Dress Code. 

As naked scientists contemplate men’s nipples  (10^th Jun)

And Armageddon with a practised eye, (24^th Jun)

Their brilliant minds are brought to sharp attention

When the Amazing Phage phenomenon comes by.

No more will they chill in extreme survival  (22^nd Jul)

Nor jiggle with a jam jar full of rice -  (3^rd Jun)

A Cambridge conversation's in the offing

And a Commons feast of phage that will suffice.

So naked scientists dress yourselves – and hurry

Though phages have seen all there is to see.

Like us, the little chaps expect decorum

Though respecting nakedness med-ic-all-y.





...

The Ministry of Defence replied this week, including this very welcome invitation.

'...Regarding your visit to the Gori Military Hospital, if there are any outcomes or discussions that you think may be of interest to the MOD, then please do send these along.'

So this is indeed what I have done in two rather lengthy and detailed emails. I hope they are received safely. There are still some more key points to be pointed out, but basically it relates to the fact that when they wrote formally last September about what they knew of bacteriophages, they didn't mention anything about the clinic in Poland, the clinic in Texas or the great interest in phage therapy that there is in universities, especially at Evergreen College in Olympia University, Washington State. Perhaps they didn't know then. That first letter is with my previous research on my other website - the page reference is http://www.relax-well.co.uk/MOD-20060916.pdf .





There are scientists going there from all over the world to attend the 17th International Evergreen Phage Biology Meeting which is just around the corner, from 12-17th August.  It will be an ideal opportunity for those further discussions about the Phages on the Battlefield project that I immediately brought to the attention of the British Embassy in Washington DC a couple of months ago - in person. 

The other piece of news is that there is a beautiful new book published in the UK.

Don't worry about the price. It costs about £150, but with any luck you can soon read it for nothing. I think it should be in every university library and NHS library - don't you? It is very inspiring.

In this area, the nearest local NHS library (and with open access to the public) is at East Surrey Hospital, in Maple House. You can sit and read in the fresh air and sunshine if you prefer.

If you are new to this site, you may like to start at the Welcome page.

Hospitals: Infectious Diseases

MP Sandra Gidley asked the Secretary of State for Health how many children died from a hospital acquired infection since 2000.

The written answer from Ann Keen (DoH) yesterday stated that The Office for National Statistics (ONS) publishes annual reports on statistics of deaths with meticillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bacteraemias or Clostridium difficile.

What? Nah!!! Oh alright then - I hadn't seen that!  

If I just explain the context - it's the Department of Health headquarters in Whitehall yesterday - Richmond House with a Union Jack flying above it. I think as I remember, the Cenotaph with masses of flags is just to one side of it.


When I glanced at the tiny photo on my mobile phone, I first saw the central shadow - a soldier carrying a flag/holding a musket or something? The actual flag I was photographing looks like a little puff of smoke. To me, this would be like a constant reminder that so many people have died needlessly, or in fighting for our countries or from infections.

I don't know if the Cenotaph and flags are causing the big shadow or whether it's the tree, but for some reason when I tried to email it to my computer, it never got there!  I have tried several times and to my other email address too.




Most odd.

So next time I go to London on a sunny day I am going to take my proper camera and be there in Whitehall at the same sort of time to try again. It was about 4.45pm I think.

It was a good meeting at 1 Birdcage Walk - I am fairly hopeful that something would come of it. They are offering £16.5 million at the moment.  Loads and loads of scientists!  I think I was probably the only one that didn't have a job title on my printed name badge. Tee hee!

Also I think it's rather unfortunate that the great big tree isn't growing vertically. Not so good with droughts and floods.

Oh, and when I looked at that shadow again, it looked just like a cleaning lady carrying a mop and a bucket!

A friend of mine even wondered if that was a Gormley on the roof (left). Well, possibly ... but let's get real.


But I nearly forgot to tell you the best bit. 



At the Open Meeting, my colleague asked a brilliant question that came like a bolt out of the blue. Where did the figure £16.5 million come from?  Was there going to be more money if there are some really good ideas for sorting out infections in the UK once and for all, as a long term strategy?

That caused a ripple in the audience.

I am pleased to say that the panel said yes, they could rustle up some more money. They said that they were possibly just a bit doubtful that there would be sufficient high quality proposals from our scientists.

"There are gaps in UK microbiology" said Professor Brian Duerden, the Chairman - the Chief Microbiologist from the Department of Health. They are offering this funding "so that people don't get left behind if they have something to offer."

That is verbatim.

Another question - training abroad?
"Yes" they said. "It could be very useful."

"The principle is adding value - an inward flow to benefit the UK."



There is also a major one-off funding opportunity for the scientific community in Europe, to assist with networking, but that's another story and I would love to tell you about it. It would probably be easier if you ask.

Oops! Oops! Ooops!

Professor Brian Duerden, the Chief Inspector of Microbiology and Infection Control at the Department of Health had lots of meetings last year and he wrote a report in July. It was published in January - and this is one of his findings.

"... all were agreed that there was in fact a staffing crisis in medical microbiology across all the professional groups. There is a significant deficit in consultant medical microbiologist numbers and with a vacancy factor around 10%, there are a number of laboratories around the country where posts have been vacant for upwards of a year. In some instances there is no full-time medical microbiologist in a laboratory.

Similarly the lack of a proper career structure for clinical microbiologists (clinical scientists) has hindered throughput of trainees to senior posts and there is also a lack of trained biomedical scientists in many areas."

We are left to draw our own conclusions.

And, oops again.

They were saying the same thing for years. Academic Medical Bacteriology in the 21st Century, published by the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2001, highlighted the decline of medical microbiology as an academic discipline in the UK.

Now - for some positive action and free advice.
We could start with the little ones, couldn't we?
Are you sitting comfortably?
Then I'll begin. 

Here's a lovely story about microbes that we made earlier.
You can sing along if you like.
http://www.relax-well.co.uk/a_little_story.html  


And meanwhile perhaps the DoH can get on with organising a proper career structure for budding young microbiologists please, so they have something to look forward to when they grow up.













.....

Re: 28th May - Photosensitivity or phages?

The MHRA have now written again, pointing out that they were quoting from the Summary of Product Characteristics for doxycyline which is written and owned by the Marketing Authorisation Holder (ie, license holder) for a medicine. And "Furthermore, as an Agency, it is not our role to comment on the availability or suitability for alternative treatments for individual patients." So presumably it's up to the rest of us to comment.

The MHRA are now saying that they are not able to draw on this research and knowledge 'at present' - and that is a teensy-weensy bit different (isn't it?) from what they wrote two months ago in May, when they were not aware of the need.


Here's some small print: http://emc.medicines.org.uk/emc/assets/c/html/displaydoc.asp?DocumentID=16431.

I'd rather have natural therapeutic phages any day for my family, thanks. I have searched everywhere on Google and asked experts all across Europe and North America but no-one can come up with any evidence of adverse effects at all.









Phages in Reigate, Surrey, UK


And anyway, there's a bacteriophage petition on the Prime Minister's website¹, and yesterday's BBC Radio 4 programme² so at least the general public will know about Pseudomonas phages for earache in a London hospital. Phage therapy isn't a specialist subject any more.

Also there's some great news in the news release from my colleagues in Canada³ and Texas regarding that wonderful synergistic effect of Dispersin B and phages I referred to a couple of times in May - and even better news for interested parties who would now like to research it further. 



references:
¹Number 10 Downing Street - bacteriophage

And while we are looking at research, here is Teona Daniela's paper about liquid phages and Phage Bioderm for treating people who have had traumatic facial injuries in car crashes.

Are we still not going to do anything about this in the West?

http://abre.tsmu.edu/2005/v5is1_07.pdf

We've found the peritonitis research translated into English -  in dogs and human patients!


Here it is -

Tbilisi State Medical University, Annals of Biomedical Research and Education, 2001 October/December, Volume 1, Issue 4 - pdf

Abstract online:
Paper: Clinical and Immunological Aspects of Treatment of ...