Fecal matter from healthy people curing chronic c diff

Link: Sherbrooke Record - There’s no polite way to say this - C. diff superbug cure is a bit... gross.

Elderly patients and those with weak immune systems are at a higher risk of infection and death.A fecal transplant, also called fecal flora therapy, consists of injecting feces from healthy individuals into the bowels of patients suffering from recurring bouts of C. difficile to help restore normal intestinal function.CHUS gastroenterologist Langelier, who has performed the procedure 30 times over the past 15 years, says the donor’s stool “is full of intestinal flora that helps rebuild the ecosystem of the patient’s bowel, block the proliferation of C. difficile, and rebuild the normal intestinal bacteria the patients had before they contracted the bug.”While fecal transplants are an effective treatment in patients with recurring outbreaks of C. difficile, the procedure is rare because few doctors know about it. The treatment is also infrequent because it is only done on those scarce patients who suffer from recurring outbreaks of C. difficile, said Langelier, who recently presented the technique to a conference of Quebec and Spanish gastroenterologists.