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 pits in Nigeria? A relatively easy first step before developing phages for treatment of these diseases in vivo.

Note that bacteriophages can also be used in microscopic wells on bacteria-screening chips - the rupture of bacterial cell walls creates a detectable electrochemical event. Test chips could be connected to cell phones, which could summon airplanes to "bomb" a water pit with a specific concentrated phage; even cheaper than broad treatment for all waterborne bacterial illnesses.