My journey goes from being India’s first known phage therapy patient to becoming an advocate, facilitator and enabler for phage therapy. My wife and I founded Vitalis Phage Therapy after the successful treatment of my antibiotic-resistant multi-pathogenic infection with phages at the Eliava Phage Therapy Center. The aim of Vitalis Phage Therapy is to make phage therapy accessible as a treatment option to every person suffering from an antibiotic resistant infection or chronic infection. Our activities include phage therapy awareness initiatives, establishing local treatment frameworks in India to enable people to access phage therapy without travelling to another country, establishing diagnostic testing with phages in India to provide quicker access to the phage therapy, and working with medical institutions to facilitate phage therapy for their patients. The main opportunities that we are looking at are collaborations for furthering access to phage therapy and funding to scale up our activities.

My husband, Pranav, and I founded Vitalis Phage Therapy after the successful treatment of his antibiotic-resistant multi-pathogenic chronic infection with phages at the Eliava Phage Therapy Center. As his primary caregiver during this time, I have seen first-hand the impact and suffering that chronic conditions can have on a person’s life. When we discovered phage therapy and Pranav underwent his treatment with phages, it gave him a new lease of life. We decided then to make this treatment better known and better accessible, with a focus on our home country, India. The aim of Vitalis Phage Therapy is to make phage therapy accessible as a treatment option to every person suffering from an antibiotic resistant infection or chronic infection. Our activities include phage therapy awareness initiatives, establishing local treatment frameworks in India to enable people’s access to phage therapy without travelling to another country, establishing diagnostic testing with phages in India to provide quicker access to the phage therapy, and working with medical institutions to facilitate phage therapy for their patients.