This is Abdullah Arif, a 44 year old male residing in Brisbane, Australia for the last 20 years with my family. It all started when I had an operation for a big kidney stone, during my visit to India in October 2019. Everything was fine, the operation went well and I returned home after two days. But I started noticing that my stream of urine was bit weak and I had little bit of burning on urination as well. I immediately informed the Doctor, who advised me to take an Amikacin injection and in the mean time he also advised to have the Urine Culture. The report came after three days and it was a shocker for me! Psuedomonas Aeruginosa infection, resistant to almost all oral antibiotics except a few intravenous antibiotics. The doctor advised that it can be because of the kidney stone which is left, so had to change the antibiotics as I was resistant to Amikacin as well. I was then on one week of intravenous Meropenem and Tazobactam. The infection level came down but did not clear with the change of antibiotic. Doctor advised me to again go for one week of intravenous antibiotics before he could do the second operation to get the stone out. I took a second opinion from another doctor. He removed the stent and then put me on one month oral antibiotic, which was the only one sensitive. After finishing the course I got retested and the infection was still there. I was getting frustrated. I started searching for alternative treatments. During my search, I found Vitalis Phage Therapy. I emailed them and Pranav replied to me. He explained phage therapy to me, and all the procedures but I was not fully convinced. My family was also a bit sceptical about phage therapy since we had not heard of it. I was again put on 14 days Meropenem after consultation with a top infection control specialist from a leading hospital in Delhi. I finished the course and tested again. The test showed no infection. I was relieved and returned back to Australia in January 2020, just before the COVID lockdowns started.
In due course of time, my symptoms started coming back and I decided to send my urine samples to Eliava for testing. With the directions from Pranav, I sent my sample to Eliava in Georgia, in Amies gel transport kits given to me by Pranav. The report came back after 2 weeks and showed an infection of Pseudomonas. Fortunately it was sensitive to two of their standard phages. During this three week period, my urine samples were tested thrice. The tests showed the WBC count was increasing and the culture showed a growth of Pseudomonas Aeruginosa infection again. My GP advised me to track my temperature and then come back if I developed a fever. The urininary problem of burning and weak stream was increasing. Then one day, my urine completely stopped! I went to the Emergency and they told me a stone had descended and blocked the urine flow. I was put on intravenous antibiotics again for 14 days. I was getting really frustrated due to this recurrent problems. I contacted Pranav again and sent the urine sample again after the Covid lockdown was lifted in Georgia. The report from Eliava showed the same infection as last time. This time I don’t want to take further antibiotics and asked Vitalis to arrange the option of distance treatment. Pranav had already explained this treatment option to me. After so many antibiotics had not worked, I was convinced that I have to go with phages. After a few hiccups my phages arrived in July. I started them with the exact instructions as provided by Eliava urologist. If I had any doubts about the guidelines, Pranav was there to clarify them. Three days after starting phages, I noticed a little bit of better urine flow. The phages lasted around 3 and half months and my symptoms continued to improve during this time. I got tested again for urine culture after finishing the phages. The infection was not gone completely but had came down as shown by the WBC count in the urine report – from 150 to 60. Hence I have ordered the phages again and waiting for them to arrive so that I can start them again. In the last 4 to 5 months, I haven’t taken any antibiotic and I pretty hopeful that my infection with clear with the phages. I am also looking to get my left over stone removed which can help in speeding up my recovery. I recommend for any one suffering from an antibiotic resistant infection to go with phages. Indians are lucky to have the phage sensitivity testing now available in India . I wish it was available here in Australia as well.
If anyone needs any more details about my treatment or want to talk to me, I am more than happy. My details are with Pranav. Thanks a lot Eliava Phage Therapy Center and Vitalis.
