Clostridium difficile is a bacterial infection that can cause diarrhea and in some cases a life-threatening inflammation of the colon. It typically occurs after patients have taken antibiotics to treat another infection.
The illness happens when the healthy microbes in the patients' intestines are killed by the antibiotics, allowing the C. diff bacteria to flourish and release toxins that attack the lining of the intestines. Many patients require repeated courses of antibiotics to kill the C. diff.
Over the past 20 years, physicians have experimented with what they euphemistically call "fecal transplants" to treat C. diff. These involve taking stool from a patient's family member, mixing it with water and injecting it into the patient's bowel using an enema.
A Canadian team is testing the idea on patients with multiple infections of Clostridium difficile that did not respond to antibiotic treatments. The patients swallowed capsules containing fecal microbes from a family member.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/10/03/poop-pill-c-diff-infection/2915843/
The illness happens when the healthy microbes in the patients' intestines are killed by the antibiotics, allowing the C. diff bacteria to flourish and release toxins that attack the lining of the intestines. Many patients require repeated courses of antibiotics to kill the C. diff.
Over the past 20 years, physicians have experimented with what they euphemistically call "fecal transplants" to treat C. diff. These involve taking stool from a patient's family member, mixing it with water and injecting it into the patient's bowel using an enema.
A Canadian team is testing the idea on patients with multiple infections of Clostridium difficile that did not respond to antibiotic treatments. The patients swallowed capsules containing fecal microbes from a family member.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/10/03/poop-pill-c-diff-infection/2915843/