**4. Phage therapy in humans**

Human phage therapy has been practiced in France since 1919, d'Hérelle carried out very extensive studies especially in fowl typhoid and in cholera. In 1921 Bruynoghe and Maisin, Belgium reported that injecting phages targeting *Staphylococcus* near the base of cutaneous boils (furuncles and carbuncles), prompted improvement within 48 hours includes reduction in irritability [26–28].

### **Figure 3.**

*Schematic diagram indicating areas where phage therapy had been applied clinically (Ng et al. [33]).*

A study conducted in by *G. Lang* revealed the utilization of bacteriophage in seven patients with chronic orthopedic infections with antibiotic resistant organisms. He was able to fix two out of seven cases of hip prostheses (after removal of the prostheses) infected by Gram-negative bacteria, one case of tibial osteomyelitis because of the infection caused by*Proteus spp.*, *Staphylococcus aureus* and *Klebsiella spp*.; one instance of septic arthritis of the knee caused due to *Enterobacter* spp. and *Staphylococcus aureus,* one case of septic non-union of the femur due to pan-drug resistant (PDR) *Providencia* [29, 30]. *Henri de Montclos* expressed that phage appear to be safe for human cells though potentially there could be problems associated with their modes of preparation. He also stated about propagation on media produced from animal tissues [31].

The Pasteur Institute stopped making therapeutic cocktails of phages but few French physicians have continued to use phages therapeutically and obtaining their phages from Russia or Georgia. Infections through *Staphylococcus* appear to be the most common target which was treated by phages. In 2011 *Abedon et al*. reported successful phage therapy in two patients from France and Australia who had strong history of antibiotics treatment and other therapies [32]. There are many body places, where phage therapy have been applied and investigated as shown in **Figure 3** [33].
