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.