‘Poop Pills’ Used to Cure Colon Infections

For several years, doctors have been curing dangerous colon infections by transplanting feces containing normal, healthy bacteria into the diseased colon. Now there’s an easier way to deliver the dose: poop pills. Actually, feces from a donor are processed so there’s nothing left but the bacteria. Placed in pills and then swallowed, the healthy bacteria replace the cause of infection: Clostridium difficile (C. diff). These infections often occur in people who take antibiotics for another reason. The drugs also kill healthy bacteria in the gut. But C. diff lives in hardy spores that can become active when other bacteria disappear. C. diff causes dangerous inflammation and diarrhea. Doctors have used transplants of feces to cure C. diff infections that keep coming back. The transplants were put into the colon through the nose or rectum.