It might sound like the most unappealing treatment available, but a European study has concluded that inserting faecal material from a healthy person into the gut of somebody with severe diarrhoea, may cure their problem better than antibiotics.
The study, which appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine, involved patients who had repeated bouts of diarrhoea, caused by a bacterium known as Clostridium Difficile, which can take over the intestines after antibiotic treatment has killed off the beneficial bacteria in the gut.
About 3 million people in the United States are infected annually with the bacterium, known as C. Diff, which spreads mainly through hospitals, nursing homes and doctors' offices.
When it controls the gut, it can be hard to eradicate.
Antibiotics typically only work in 15 to 26% of patients with C. Diff, and after repeated rounds of treatment, the drugs become less effective.
"The efficacy of antibiotic therapy decreases with subsequent recurrences, and it seems reasonable to initiate treatment with donor-faeces infusion after the second or third relapse," wrote researchers led by Josbert Keller of the University of Amsterdam.
Volunteers had a brief treatment with the antibiotic, combined with bowel lavage, followed by the infusion of 500 milliliters of diluted donor faeces through a tube that went into the nose, down the throat and into the small intestine. Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday
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treated or untreated?
ReplyDeletethis is super story
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