By 2050, drug-resistant "superbugs" could kill up to 10 million people a year, according to the World Health Organization . Antibiotics, the miracle drugs that revolutionized medicine in the 20th century, are rapidly losing their power.

But a forgotten treatment, first discovered more than a century ago, could offer hope. Known as bacteriophage therapy—or "phage therapy," for short—it uses viruses that naturally prey on bacteria, hijacking and destroying them from the inside out.

Once overshadowed by penicillin, phage research is now getting a second look as scientists race to find new ways to fight infections.

A new study published in Cell Reports has found that bacteria can pull off a dramatic survival trick when attacked by viruses.

Instead of letting the infection spread, the b

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