Researchers considered finding a phage that targets Klebsiella a “high-value target”, Lithgow said.

“Normally, the people who would do the phage hunting for The Alfred would go to The Alfred hospital’s wastewater tanks, and they would try and fish the phage from there, which is a dirty, filthy procedure, and you have to be covered like a CSI investigator in order to get amongst it and not get sick,” Lithgow said.

‘We knew there were some interesting things in the Merri Creek, but we didn’t expect this.’

Julian Rait, Australian Medical Association

However, the phages always found in hospitals were good – but not great – at killing Klebsiella.

Lithgow and his team took a different approach.

Loading

“[We asked], would there be more diversity if we went, as it were, into the wild to try and find phage that would kill this hospital-type Klebsiella,” he said.

Wurundjeri elders named the Klebsiella-killing bacteriophage Merri-merri-uth nyilam marra-natj (MMNM), which translates as “dangerous Merri lurker” in English.

Phages were first used as treatment more than a century ago, but the emergence of antibiotics meant phage therapy was all but abandoned in much of the world. The rise of antibiotic-resistant superbugs has, however, prompted renewed interest in phage therapy.

Australian Medical Association vice president Julian Rait said the team’s research was exciting. “We knew there were some interesting things in the Merri Creek, but we didn’t expect this,” he said.

Loading

“It’s almost like we’re back to the future with this examination of phage activity directed against a broader spectrum of bacteria than we might have first thought of.”

According to research published in The Lancet in September, antibiotic resistant infections could kill 1.91 million people annually by the middle of the century.

Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.