http://www.phageinternational.com/doc/tbsordie.pdf

Roger Mintey, Laura Roberts and Grace Filby were all scared to travel
to Tbilisi. They were afraid to get bombed or kidnapped. Now they say
Tbilisi at night is safer than London or many US cities, and although
they have noticed that Tbilisi doesn't have any road crossing
regulations, needs of pedestrians are violated and the sidewalks in
the
old part of Tbilisi are not fit for disabled people in walkers,
positive
impressions are still prevailing: the guests are impressed by Georgian
culture, emphasis on education, strong traditions and the religious
tolerance. One more thing that unites them is phages. Grace is mostly
involved in phage research, while Roger and Laura say phage therapy,
including pyobacteriophages that cost GEL 9 at Tbilisi pharmacy shops,
has saved their lives.
Roger Mintey has two university degrees from Oxford and London; he
is well known in the field of archaeology in the UK and is the first
UK
man who came to Tbilisi to start phage therapy to treat an
antibioticresistant
infection. He has suffered respiratory diseases for five years,
but doctors in the UK could not help him. Roger will stay in Tbilisi
for about 10 days.
"This is the first time I've been in a plane, last Tuesday. The first
patient to come over from my country to
Tbilisi was a lady, who happened to be my cousin's wife. She told me
she had researched on the Internet
and found out that Tbilisi was one of the centers of the phage therapy
in the world. She came over and
was cured. So, now I'm here, too. The first UK male patient," Roger
says.
Roger met Laura Roberts at the hotel in the old part of Tbilisi, where
both of them stay. Laura is one of the
first Americans to come over to Tbilisi to treat a sinus infection she
has been suffering for 28 years. This is
her second time in Tbilisi.
"The first time I came here in 2005, I was dying. I had to use a
walker, struggle with a cane and carry
oxygen everywhere. I was totally disabled; I mean you have to feel
really bad to be accepted by Medicare in the US and I was. I had five
surgeries done, but the infection was too chronic and since the US
didn't have anything like phage, doctors could only treat my
symptoms," Laura says.

She adds that meanwhile she had become resistant to the medication.
"Doctors all diagnosed me with
different diseases and could not understand that several bacteria had
caused all these symptoms. One of
my last diagnoses was a stomach cancer and the doctor told me I would
die. Okay, I thought to myself,
you either go to Tbilisi or die," Laura remembers with a smile.
Laura found out about phage therapy opportunities in Tbilisi five
years ago from the program 60 Minutes,
which aired a program on phage. "All of my doctors except one told me
not to come to Tbilisi. They were
skeptical of phage therapy in general," Laura remembers.
Laura says she made a right decision to come to Tbilisi. "Doctors in
the US label, they don't connect the
dots, while here you face a gentle handling and individual approach
towards the illness. This is not labeling
but examining the disease from the different aspects. You can feel
that treatment here is not only about
money; the doctors really want to help you. Eliava Institute [where
Laura and Roger undergo treatment]
has a wonderful lab and it has become a second home for me," says
Laura.
Eliava Institute
The George Eliava Institute of Bacteriophage, Microbiology and
Virology, often referred..................
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