Clostridium difficile, as its name suggests, is a bacterial infection that affects the intestines. It kills 14,000 people in this country each year. The only successful treatment is the transplantation of feces in liquid form from healthy people to patients with stubborn infections. Antibiotics are not very helpful.
But fecal transplants are not easy. The procedure requires delivery of a fecal solution via the rectum or a tube inserted through the nose. As with colonoscopies, patients must flush their bowels first. And it is not easy to find donors. Nor is it cheap.
Researchers at Mass. General Hospital have developed a capsule that in a very small trial worked wonders. The capsule contains human feces — strained, centrifuged and frozen. Those in the trial took it for two days and almost all of them reported improvements.
No comments:
Post a Comment