Lianna Trevino

Biology 1090
News Analysis
November 7,2019

1. Cite the name of the news source, the article title, the date, and the byline (the reporter’s
name). Paste a link to the article here (in Canvas).

Schmidt, Charles. “Phage Therapy Could Beat Drug-Resistant Illnesses.” Scientific American, 1
Nov. 2019, https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/phage-therapy-could-beat-drug-resistant-
illnesses/.

2. What are the main conclusions of the scientist(s)?

These scientist are working on using phages to kill bad bacteria in the human body in order to
help cure certain diseases. The article talks about multiple ways that one is able to administer a
phage to a human body and are unsure of what method is to be used. More testing is to be done
on phages curing human diseases but it is clear that this is a new route to take when a person
becomes resistant to antibiotics.

3. What are some possible impacts this information could have on society or on individuals?

This impact is extremely valuable because bacteria is able to evolve very quickly and overcome
antibiotics. Antibiotics are a good way to kill of bad bacteria but they also kill off all the good
bacteria. Using a phage to kill bacteria only targets the bad bacteria. This could be extremely
useful in the future when common bacteria become resistant to even the strongest of antibiotics.

4. Are other scientists, or policy-makers, mentioned as being in disagreement with the

research scientists? If so, what might make you tend to take their doubts seriously (or not
take them seriously)?
There are a few that are concerned with using phages as a method to cure some diseases because
there have been some not so good test on humans, choosing what method is the best to use, and
also if the use of phages could cause bacteria to become resistant similar to how it becomes
resistant to antibiotics. I think that there should be more human experiments but as far as I can
see what scientist have done in laboratory settings is very promising. I agree that there are
different methods but the main idea is for the doctors to weaken the disease enough for the
antibiotics to work and to kill off the rest of the disease. There was a really promising human
case were a man picked up a bacterial infection in Egypt and was induced into a medical coma
because the strain of bacteria he acquired was resistant to antibiotics. The doctors introduced a
phage to this man and he was free of all the bacteria within days and left the hospital a week later
completely heathy.
 5. Are scientists mentioned in the article affiliated with a nonpartisan group, like a
University or Government, or affiliated with a for-profit corporation? If the latter, do you
suspect that altered their conclusions?

There were a few universities listed that were apart of this study. I believe that if the results start
becoming more promising that government will begin to support the research more considering it
would be able to cure more diseases and may be able to becoming a treatment better than
antibiotics since it doesn’t kill the good bacteria.

6. In what ways did the article change and expand your views of the topic? If it did not
change or expand your views, describe what you knew about the subject before reading
the article.

I was really interested in this article because when I took microbiology I thought that the use of
phages to kill bacteria was the most interesting topic I learned about. I think that every organism
has a purpose and we are yet to unlock what all those purposes pose, but if we are able to find a
better way to cure bacterial infections in a more efficient way than we should be able to explore
those options.

7. Do you think the reporter did a good job or a bad job of giving background for the story?
Please give an example to support your opinion.

I believe that this reported did a very good job at explaining the topic. I really liked that the
reporter gave insights to real life cases that they were able to showcase, I like how they gave in
pictures of how bacteria are able to becoming antibiotic resistant and how a phage would be used
to kill that bacteria. I think that reporter did a good job explaining what the scientific terms were
in order for people to understand the terminology easily.