'Man on the Moon' moment – the year's big breakthroughs in medicine (opens in new tab)

> But doctors at Great Ormond Street Hospital attempted an untested "phage therapy", which uses viruses to infect and kill bacteria. Phage-therapy never became mainstream medicine and the field was eclipsed by the discovery of antibiotics, which are much easier to use.

Yes, phage therapy quickly disappeared after antibiotics were discovered. At the time, antibiotics were more convenient as they usually help against a wide range of bacteria while with phages you need to specifically test which phage works best for the strand you want to fight. It takes days with phages vs minutes with antibiotics.

The co-discoverer of phages went to georgia and helped establish phage research at a medical institue [1]. The institute survived through the horrible times of stalin and later it became of strategic importance as the west didn't share antibiotics with the soviet union. Due to the strategic importance, samples had to be sent to the institute from all over the soviet union and now the institute has one of the largest phage collections in the world. It has continued giving phage therapies to patients for decades, up until this day. Definitely not mainstream but don't call it untested!

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Eliava_Institute

In my opinion the most important medical advance that happened was reversing methylation based age indicator for the first time in a human. It's a bit sad to not see something so important on this list.

Just once I'd love to see an article that instead of breathlessly promoting ultra-expensive, risky, and unlikely to scale technologies, emphasizes how inexpensive and straightforward processes and procedures are far more effective for global health increase with reduced costs. While some of the concepts in this article may go on to be successful, they will mostly just increase the total cost of care.

It's a shame that there's no mention of the migraine related breakthroughs. Two new types of drugs that target CGRP (Calcitonin gene-related peptide) were approved and brought to market. One type is sold as injections and is used to prevent migraines, the other type is a tablet that's used to stop an acute migraine.

About a billion (!) people are affected by migraines, so any new treatment has the potential to be very beneficial.

Mentions phage therapy as a one liner. Kept alive on life support (metaphorically) by Soviet scientists across the life of the antibiotics era which increasingly feels like it too is on life support.

I know this is supposed to be good news and we should feel good about this, but as a generally healthy person all my life reading this I'm just shocked by the horrible diseases and illnesses that happen to good people just trying to live their lives. Through no fault of their own people end up with pain or disease and their quality of life, their hopes, their dreams, their daily life is affected. There's not a lot I can do to help any one dealing with pain and illness, but I want the best things for those of you who are. It's not your fault, and it doesn't matter if it is, nobody deserves a life of pain and suffering and other bullshit. We need to do the best we can for those affected, including making sure everyone has access to quality medical care.

The biggest breakthrough for me would also be free medicines and Universal healthcare for everyone.