When Pills Fail, This, er, Option Provides a Cure

[jsr]

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/17/health/disgusting-maybe-but-treatment-works-study-finds.html

When Pills Fail, This, er, Option Provides a Cure
By DENISE GRADY

The treatment may sound appalling, but it works.

Transplanting feces from a healthy person into the gut of one who is sick can quickly cure severe intestinal infections caused by a dangerous type of bacteria that antibiotics often cannot control.

A new study finds that such transplants cured 15 of 16 people who had recurring infections with Clostridium difficile bacteria, whereas antibiotics cured only 3 of 13 and 4 of 13 patients in two comparison groups. The treatment appears to work by restoring the gut’s normal balance of bacteria, which fight off C. difficile.

The study is the first to compare the transplants with standard antibiotic therapy. The research, conducted in the Netherlands, was published Wednesday in The New England Journal of Medicine.

[marybourg]

1. Terrific article with great comments following.

I had c. diff from antibiotic following dental treatment; absolutely horrible. I would do this treatment in a heartbeat if I ever contracted it again.

[OswegoAtheist]

2. Republican Party should win the Nobel Prize for Medicine, then.

They've been feeding people a constant diet of shit for decades now.

Oswego "Grand Old Polyp" Atheist

[Lasher]

3. This makes sense, but

[Myrina]

4. So the phrase "Eat shit and die" isn't necessarily accurate?