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> it seems to be on of HN's favorite biology topics Yeah, it seems HN knows more about phages than physicians, which is pretty bloody damning. Why TF don't phy

> it seems to be on of HN's favorite biology topics Yeah, it seems HN knows more about phages than physicians, which is pretty bloody damning. Why TF don't physicians know about this? "First, Strathdee found an obscure treatment that offered a glimmer of hope -- fighting superbugs with phages, viruses created by nature to eat bacteria." According to TFA, Strathdee is also an infectious disease epidemiologist, and she didn't find out about phages until her husband had almost karked it, after several months of fighting an antibiotic-resistant infection. There was a similar story on HN three years ago about a teenager in the UK with cystic fibrosis and an antibiotic-resistant infection after a lung transplant. The physicians treating her didn't know about phages, and her mother had to suggest it. [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19863445 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19863445] So that's at least two cases of people dying slowly from antibiotic-resistant infection until someone suggested phages, which were then successfully used to save their lives. Are the treating physicians incompetent?

Fomite 4y ago
It's not a standard therapy - she had to go to extremely specific specialists, including USAMRID. I've seen her talk multiple times, and am a great admirer of hers, but phage as they are are very much last ditch, bespoke treatments. Specialist ID physicians know - there's whole sessions about it at major infectious disease conferences. But there's a huge gap between "Knowing" and "Have the capability to use this in practice".
Fomite 4y ago
Also, because I had a sneaking suspicion - Strathdee was an HIV researcher. In fairness, most of infectious disease epidemiology is HIV research. It's entirely reasonable she wouldn't have necessarily heard of a fairly niche therapy in another area - phage is basically a non-starter for global health (where her work was), and hospital epidemiology is a very niche field.
- t_mann 4y ago
  That is not a good excuse for not knowing something infectious-disease-related that the average user on a software engineering forum seems to know. It's like MDs talking about a programmer and saying something like 'It's entirely reasonable that, as a Python dev, he wouldn't have heard of compilers. He doesn't need them for his work, and compiler developmentn is a very niche field'. That's simply not a good excuse.
  - Fomite 4y ago
    I'd suggest its much more like, as a Python dev, not being up on the latest applications of Rust for HPC.
    - t_mann 4y ago
      If phages are so extremely niche as you suggest, then how come that they seem to be common knowledge among software engineers? And you're making an inconsistent comparison: it's not about being an expert, not even about having read a wikipedia article on the topic, it's merely about having heard of that thing existing. A Python dev who has never even heard of Rust or can't even guess what HPC might stand for would be strange indeed. And the same goes for medical professionals who haven't even heard about a whole class of treatment options for a serious global disease problem (and, as a corollary, cannot recommend consulting a specialist).
throwaway4220 4y ago
Of course we learn about bacteriophages in medical school and university. I’m a radiologist and even I know about it. It’s just not FDA approved treatment. You’re talking about inoculating someone with a virus intentionally

Fomite 4y ago

It's not a standard therapy - she had to go to extremely specific specialists, including USAMRID. I've seen her talk multiple times, and am a great admirer of hers, but phage as they are are very much last ditch, bespoke treatments. Specialist ID physicians know - there's whole sessions about it at major infectious disease conferences. But there's a huge gap between "Knowing" and "Have the capability to use this in practice".

Fomite 4y ago

Also, because I had a sneaking suspicion - Strathdee was an HIV researcher. In fairness, most of infectious disease epidemiology is HIV research. It's entirely reasonable she wouldn't have necessarily heard of a fairly niche therapy in another area - phage is basically a non-starter for global health (where her work was), and hospital epidemiology is a very niche field.

t_mann 4y ago
That is not a good excuse for not knowing something infectious-disease-related that the average user on a software engineering forum seems to know. It's like MDs talking about a programmer and saying something like 'It's entirely reasonable that, as a Python dev, he wouldn't have heard of compilers. He doesn't need them for his work, and compiler developmentn is a very niche field'. That's simply not a good excuse.
- Fomite 4y ago
  I'd suggest its much more like, as a Python dev, not being up on the latest applications of Rust for HPC.
  - t_mann 4y ago
    If phages are so extremely niche as you suggest, then how come that they seem to be common knowledge among software engineers? And you're making an inconsistent comparison: it's not about being an expert, not even about having read a wikipedia article on the topic, it's merely about having heard of that thing existing. A Python dev who has never even heard of Rust or can't even guess what HPC might stand for would be strange indeed. And the same goes for medical professionals who haven't even heard about a whole class of treatment options for a serious global disease problem (and, as a corollary, cannot recommend consulting a specialist).

throwaway4220 4y ago

Of course we learn about bacteriophages in medical school and university. I’m a radiologist and even I know about it. It’s just not FDA approved treatment. You’re talking about inoculating someone with a virus intentionally