Pranav Johri paid thousands for phage therapy, which uses natural bacteria-eaters, after five rounds of antibiotics made his prostate issue even worse. A growing number of bacterial infections have become resistant to antibiotics (The Canadian Press)

NEW DELHI—Canadian Press reporters travelled to South Africa and India to investigate the growing epidemic of drug resistance, which experts describe as the single greatest threat to human health on the planet. This is the final story of a six-part series exploring how the unfettered use of antibiotics pushes humanity closer to a post-antibiotic era in which common infections may be impossible to treat. The R. James Travers Foreign Corresponding Fellowship helped fund the project.

Pranav Johri completed five rounds of antibiotics to treat a persistent prostate problem in his early 30s, but his case flummoxed doctors because the medicine seemed to make him worse.

“My entire life had become so limited,” says the 35-year-old workaholic from India’s capital city, recalling how he couldn’t summon strength for much more than a small meal in between long naps.

The athletic man Apurva Virmani Johri had married just a few years prior was confined to their bedroom, surrounded by photos of the couple hiking around the world — a constant reminder of their former life.

“I think the hardest part was just not seeing him smile,” she says. “This is a person who would smile at the drop of a hat.”

Pranav’s breaking point came when his doctor told him to prepare for a lifetime of symptom management, rather than a cure for his prostatitis, a swelling of the walnut-sized gland below a man’s bladder.

The frustrated patient scoured the internet for answers to his mysterious predicament. He contacted a specialist to conduct more in-depth testing and learned the bacteria causing his prostatitis was resistant to all five antibiotics he’d taken.

He stumbled upon stories of others in similar circumstances who turned to a long-retired cure for their illnesses: phage therapy.