Option 1: Go abroad and get treated by Phage Therapy by foreign local doctors

Three countries offer the opportunity to be treated by phage therapy: Poland, Russia and Georgia. Add Belgium, at Reine Astrid Military Hospital (HMRA).

• Poland: The Phage Therapy Center from the Ludwik Hirszfeld Institute for Immunology and Experimental Therapy in Wroclaw, contact: agorski@ikp.pl, phone (+48 71) 3709901, fax (+48 71) 3372171. The center claims to have treated over 1500 phage therapy patients since 1980 with a majority of successes. The center now has consultation places in:
  • Wroclaw (PAS Institute of Immunology and Experimental Therapy Medical Center, Weigla 12, 53-114 Wrocław, Poland, Tel.: +48 71 370 99 01 (direct) or +48 71 337 11 72 (general reception of the institute),
    otf@hirszfeld.pl)
  • Krakow (CAMI-Centre for Regenerative Medicine; Cosmetic surgery; Laser therapy, Felix Koneczny 2/4U, 31-216 Cracow, Tel.: +48 12 420 60 70, otf.krakow@iitd.pan.wroc.pl)
  • Czestochowa (Klara Medical Center, Embankments of General Józef Dwernicki 43/45, 42-202 Czestochowa, Tel: +48 34 534 50 00, otf.klara@iitd.pan.wroc.pl)

The treated germs are:  Acinetobacter, Burkholderia, Citrobacter, Enterobacter, Enterococcus, Escherichia, Klebsiella, Morganella, Proteus, Pseudomonas, Shigella, Salmonella, Serratia, Staphylococcus, and/or Stenotrophomonas.

The cost is around 1000€ for a treatment of 6 at 8 weeks

• For the Georgia, there are organizations on the internet ready to take care of you completely for your treatment and help with accommodation:
  • Eliava Phage Therapy Center , member of Consortium Eliava – who can also arrange the stay. It is possible to send them by mail a sample for phage resistance analysis so as not to go there for nothing. The cost of their standard on-site treatment package of 10 days is 3900€ in 2022. Add 1400€ for 20 custom-made phage boxes if commercial Eliava cocktails are inactive. Plus the cost of phages to take home.
  • Caucasus Healing (aka Traveling in Georgia), Georgian medical tourism company working with the clinic Mediclub Georgia, where are the consultations, and who proposes to organize the stay completely; according to their website, Caucasus Healing is a brand of the Georgian travel agency “Traveling in Georgia” registered in Tbilisi under the number B151011118. Finally the French association Phages Without Borders can help you finance your trip by Heal in Georgia. Typical treatment includes 2 weeks on site.
  • Phage Therapy Center – a company founded in 2005 by Phage International, an American medical tourism company founded in Danville, California by a certain Chris Smith and which takes care of the treatment and can also manage the accommodation. The outpatient treatment costs $3000 at $5000 (excludes housing costs).

  Given the prices charged, one wonders if it wouldn't be worth to have direct contact with the referral facility, the’Eliava Institute', or just buy locally in a Georgian pharmacy a bacteriophage cocktail adapted to the germ and to the infection. You can always be treated afterwards by one of these centers or by the Eliava Institute if the phage cocktail remains ineffective.. Foreign patients are accepted by the Eliava Institute but you must speak Georgian or Russian or find an interpreter, which is easy. All that remains is to buy your plane ticket and find accommodation online on a site such as booking; we find comfortable accommodation at low prices. For the interpreter,  

  you can try here to contact one by email (we have nothing to do with the recipient, which we just know is honest) or contact Europhages.  

  The director of the Eliava center, Madam Doctor Mzia Kutateladze, speak French. All you have to do is go to the waiting room at the Institute of Bacteriophages, of Microbiology and Virology Georges Eliava – 3 Levan Gotua St, Tbilisi. The premises are old and run down but the treatment is the best you can get in Georgia.

• For the Russia, no known solution, except to contact a Russian Medical Center turned to foreign expatriates living in Russia. Experience tells that they may not understand the process as they consider Western medicine to be more advanced than Russian. You'll need to check that they use bacteriophages, most should.
  Links for Saint Petersburg:
  Affiliated Doctor from the Consulate in St. Petersburg and speaking French/English :
  Dr. Vadim Kemkine, such.: (7-812)-542-57-50 (cabinet) ; (7-812)-944-89-94 (cell phone)
  MEdSI International Clinic St Petersburg (open 24/24, works with several Western insurance companies)  Tel: (7812) 336 33 33
  Euromed Clinic – tel: 7 812 327 0301 – 60 Suvorovsky pr., Saint-Petersburg
  AMERICAN MEDICAL CLINIC (open 24/24) Tel: (7812) 740 20 90 / fax: 310 46 64 – 78 dock the Moika
  Links for Moscow:
  Multilingual Doctors ofEuropean Medical Center (EMC) – open 24 24 – Spiridonovski Pereoulok 5/1 (Metro Pouchskinskaia) — tel : (7 495) 933 66 55
  Medical Center “FRENCH ALLIANCE” 12 Sadovaya-Samotechnaya, Moscow Tel: +7 (495) 694 5250

• In Belgium, Queen Astrid Military Hospital (HMRA) currently offers phage therapy for a limited number of germs (Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus et Acinetobacter baumannii). They are isolating new phages. In order to get accepted for treatment, they will provide a form for your doctor to fill. Applications are treated according to the emergency. Treatment is available under strict compliance with the Declaration of Helsinki: "ethical principles for medical research involving human subjects" (informed consent with patient signature is required). Contact: Ms. Christiane Maussen – 1CC – Travel Clinic – Block A floor +3 – Infectious Disease Center – MHKA-HMRA – Rue Bruyn 1 – 1120 BRUSSELS – tel: 00 32 22644577 – email: MHKA-PHAGETHERAPY @ mil.be

If you went abroad to get treated by phage therapy, please post your testimony below in comments.