Bacteriophages (Greek for “eaters of bacteria”) are also commonly known as phages, named so because the virus infects the bacteria which acts as a host. Our body is always exposed to bacteriophages because phages are able to live in the many environments where bacteria live, and exist in much larger numbers than bacteria. Bacteriophages are safe to our bodies, and it can safely and effectively remove pathogenic bacteria with target specificity. A lytic phage can rapidly kill a host bacterial cell and in the process, also make copies of itself to attack and kill additional nearby bacterial cells until they have been eliminated. Once a phage infects a host bacterial cell, it replicates itself, producing many new phages and causing the bacterium to burst, thereby releasing the remaining phages to infect and kill neighboring bacteria. Phages have host specificity like other viruses, and is able to kill only target bacteria and not other beneficial microflora or microfauna.
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