Alternative treatment options include:
- As previously mentioned in the Diphtheria topic section: Use of the diphtheria antitoxin (DAT) in cases of diphtheria - this antitoxin stops the bacterial toxin from damaging body tissues.
- Removal of the infected tissue through debridement or infected fluid through aspiration. These options depend on the location of the infection as well as the extent of the infection and are generally used in conjunction with antibiotic treatment.
Therapies that are being investigated or can be used include extracorporeal hemofiltration devices, quorum sensing inhibitors, phage therapy, immunotherapy, immune adjuvants, and liposome-based cytotoxin inhibitors.
- Extracorporeal filtration devices could be used for bloodstream infections and would filter the blood externally to lower the number of organisms in the blood thus allowing the host immune response time to remove any residual pathogens.
- Natural and synthetic quorum sensing inhibitor molecules are available that block the quorum sensing to inhibit pathogens from communicating with each other and switching their transcription profile to an invasive prototype. (Erythromycin is one such drug.)
- Phage therapy was originally introduced in the 1920s. Bacteriophages are viruses that lyse specific bacteria, are ubiquitous in nature, and are often ingested in the daily human diet. This therapy can be administered to open wounds topically or given intravenously for systemic infections. The phages are strain-specific so they cannot be used as empiric therapy.
