Medical Observer – Faecal Transplants Can donations cure?
Faecal transplantation is a promising option for C. difficile infections, yet it’s not a mainstream treatment. Kate Woods investigates.
Faecal transplantation is a promising option for C. difficile infections, yet it’s not a mainstream treatment. Kate Woods investigates.
INTERNATIONAL air passengers would be forced to drink a sachet of probiotic formula before landing in Australia under a proposal by one of the state’s leading gastroenterologists aimed at preventing an outbreak of a deadly bug ravaging North America.
ELLEN Blackwell was close to death. The Baltimore woman was spending about $US7000 a month on antibiotics to treat a year-long Clostridium difficile infection, yet was unable to stomach anything other than crackers and water.
Quite simply, HPI involves infusing a patient with someone else’s faeces. It’s a confronting treatment, but one which patients suffering from the tummy superbug, Clostridium difficile, are prepared to undertake in order to get their lives back to normal.
YOU can give it, take it or cop it. It can hit the fan and sometimes life forces you to eat a sandwich made from it, but it’s also proving to be a cure for a deadly superbug.
Human sewage used as fertiliser on farms across NSW is being blamed for a breakout of Third World parasites across Sydney.
Once a year, every year, Professor Thomas Borody receives a single-stem rose from one of his most grateful patients. She is, he says, thanking him for restoring her bowel flora.