Treating Third World Water with Bacteriophages

Currently on the nightstand, with a common thread:

Life at the Speed of Light by J. Craig Venter

Rewire: Digital Cosmopolitans in the Age of Connection by Ethan Zuckerman

Triumph of the city : how our greatest invention makes us richer, smarter, greener, healthier, and happier by Edward L. Glaeser

Venter writes about curing bacterial diseases with bacteriophages. Zuckerman writes about Makoko, a Venice-like suburb of Lagos, Nigeria. And Glaeser talks about water treatment enabling cities, and inadequate sanitation in ... Lagos, Nigeria.

Hmmm. Connect the dots.

Treating bacterial diseases in humans is fraught with difficulties. Killing bacteria in water is probably simpler, and the risks are lower. So, Dr. Venter, how about developing bacteriophages for cholera, dysentery and typhus, designed to be released in drinking water storage reservoirs in Nigeria? A relatively easy first step before developing phages for treatment of these diseases in vivo.

Bacteriophages can also be used in microscopic wells on bacteria-screening chips - the rupture of bacterial cell walls creates a detectable electrochemical event. Screening chips could be plugged into to cell phones, which could summon an airplane to "bomb" a specific reservoir with a specific concentrated phage.

Maintaining one internationally inspected "treatment airbase" for most of a continent would be far cheaper than continuous broad spectrum treatment for all waterborne bacterial illnesses, requiring a professional staff and treatment machinery for each reservoir.

reference: A 0.18μm CMOS Integrated Sensor for the Rapid Identification of Bacteria