Bacterial epidemiological typing generates isolate-specific genotypic or phenotypic characters that can be used to elucidate the sources and routes of spread of bacteria.
The initiation and maintenance of strain collections are prerequisites for an epidemiological typing study.
First essential requirement for starting in Phage Therapy in a Country is an adequate Collection of Drug- Resistant Bacteria isolated from different Sites ( Hospitals, Medical Centers) and all the time maintained up-to-date.
Epidemiological Country Situation regarding Bacteria selected for Phage Therapy must be always under surveillance.
For this reason it is indispensable to organize a Network among all Bacteriological Laboratories.
The collection should comprise strains of the species of interest: epidemiologically unrelated strains, sets of strains from outbreaks, and prospective clinical isolates with well-defined inclusion criteria.
The organisms should be stored preferably in glycerol broth at -80° C or freeze-dried according to accepted guidelines for strain preservation.
Bacterial strains isolated from every laboratory must be send to a Reference Center for a molecular characterization and final registration.
Combining typing data with clinical and demographical data is deemed to be extremely important in deriving useful conclusions from Phage Terapy Surveillance Data.
The combined data should comprise:
-strain designation,eventual other designations
-species name, the original specimen and its origin
-date of isolation
-hospital, department, patient code, city, country
-for external strains—identity of provider.
Other relevant (optional) data are: antibiogram,species identification method, and possible association with an outbreak or otherwise.
All steps above mentioned are critical factors for preparing several mixes of Bacteriophages ready for use when there is an emergency and when we can not wait the laboratory results (bacterial isolation and subsequent identification) from the patient sample.
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