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Is there an effective alternative to antibiotics? Researchers around the world are focusing on bacteriophages. These "good" viruses infect specific bacteria and destroy them. Do they offer a way out of the antibiotics crisis? Every year, around 1.3 million people die because of antibiotic resistance . According to the World Health Organization (WHO), this is one of the biggest threats to global health. There are various reasons for the growing number of antibiotic resistances: Unspecific or incorrect use of antibiotics causes bacteria to mutate into multi-resistant germs . In addition, the excessive use of antibiotics in animal husbandry has alarming consequences for humans: Antibiotics, which were considered one of medicine's greatest achievements against infections, are increasingly losing their effectiveness. Increasingly, science is relying on the potential of bacteria-eating viruses, or bacteriophages, to combat bacteria.