Unsavory treatment for superbug

The Scotsman reports:

Trials in a Scottish hospital have shown patients suffering from the Clostridium difficile bug can be cured using 'donor stool' administered via a tube through the nose into their stomach.

Ironically, patients are getting poo up their noses to cure a disease that results from dirty hospital conditions:

Clostridium difficile was last week at the heart of a damning report into cleaning failures at the Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust in Kent, which resulted in the deaths of 90 patients.

But wait, there's more:

Clostridium difficile is a particular problem among patients who have been prescribed strong antibiotics as they also wipe out the so-called 'friendly' disease-fighting bacteria in the intestine. Faecal 'transplants', as they are known, are believed to restore the bacteria to levels at which they help the recovery process.

Doctors involved in the trials admit there are "obvious aesthetic problems" in the treatment, which involves patients ingesting a liquidised sample of faeces from a partner or close relative.

However, the treatment has the potential to save the lives of hundreds of patients infected with one of Britain's most serious hospital-acquired infections. . . .

Faecal transplants allow doctors to reintroduce friendly bacteria into the gut, from a donor, using 30g of faeces. These recolonise the recipient's gut, restoring the health of the large intestine and killing off the bug.

The process takes about two weeks . . .

Via Improbable Research

Comments

[CraigC]

That's just something I didn't need to see.

[jackpine savage]

Fecal transplants: an idea you never saw coming. Is it acceptable that i (in my e.b. white way of not capitalizing the pronoun of self reference) switched to American English spelling?

Beyond the "obvious aesthetic problems", who approaches the relatives looking for donations?

"Um, sir, your wife is very sick, and while this may, er, um, be a strange request, we would, uh, well, you see, we were wondering if you might be willing to, um, yes, donate some stool?"

"What?!" spitting complimentary coffee all over the doctor's desk.

"Yes, well, you see, if we could get a small amount of your feces we will, hmmm, well, we will liquefy it and insert it into your wife's stomach, via her nose."

"Well, i suppose, i mean it is the least i can do to honor our eternal vows. Besides, next time she tells me that i'm full of shit i can retort, '...and you should thank me for it; i had enough extra to save your life.'"

[gail]

That truly brings a tear to the eye Jackpine.

[ken]

I read this on the same day as I read about Charles A. Tyrrell, the enema kingM/a>. I think I can truly say my day has gone to shit.

[ken]

Oops... preview is your friend...

[CGHill]

Preview is your friend.

With friends like these, who needs enemas?

[Miss Cellania]

In all honestly, I much prefer yogurt.