A study published in the medical journal New England Journal of Medicine suggests thattransplanting donor stool into a person with a recurrent Clostridium difficile infectionit may be more effective than treating it with antibiotics.
“The microbeClostridum difficileit only grows and causes infection when the normal bacteria in the digestive system are absent “, explains Josbert Keller, gastroenterologist at the Hagaziekenhuis Hospital in The Hague (Netherlands). The feces of a healthy donor, mixed with saline solution and introduced into the body through a colonoscopy or an enema, can act as “an army of paratroopers over enemy territory”, carrying digestive bacteria that manage to fight and eliminate the infection in a few days. “Everyone tends to joke about this treatment, but it is very effective”, adds Keller, who in his experiments has compared it with the use of antibiotics such as vancomycin, observing clear differences.the transplant worked in 81% of cases, the infection was barely cured with drug treatment. And the best part is that the entire treatment takes just over an hour and a half.
“Stool transplantation is the most powerful probiotic we can imagine, becauseintroduces healthy microbial flora into a pathological environment“, defends Keller, who does not rule out that this therapy may be used in the future to treat metabolic disorders such as obesity or irritable bowel syndrome.
