Poop Pills Devised to Curb Serious Gut Infections

A new cure for recurring gut infection has been found-  fecal transplant in the form of poop pills.

Dr. Thomas Louie, an infectious disease expert at the University of Calgary developed these pills. These capsules help in curing severe infections and diarrhea caused by C. Difficile bacterium.

These pills consist of fecal microbes from healthy people, which enter the colon of people infected with C. Difficile and restore the population of healthy microbes in the intestine of the patient after 90 minutes of consumption.

"It's totally un-invasive," Dr. Louie said in a press release.

Dr. Louie gave his capsules to about 40 patients. He is further analyzing these fecal microbes along with a research institute in Britain.

A European study was conducted on 16 people suffering from recurring C. difficile. They underwent traditional fecal transplant. Recovery was observed in fifteen participants, this study was published by the New England Journal of Medicine earlier this year.

Another study including 156 patients is in progress, it is being conducted by researchers at McMaster University in Hamilton. The study is led by Dr. Susy Hota and also includes patients from the city of Kingston, Edmonton and Vancouver. Dr. Hota along with her team conducted a trial in order to compare drug therapy and fecal transplant.

Researchers in Kingston and Guelph are aiming at expanding the use of "RePOOPulate", an artificial fecal mixture.

Fecal transplant trials have lately been stopped in some hospitals by the Canadian health administrators as they are unsafe and unverified.

"We have no idea what the long-term impacts of fecal transplants will be," says Emma Allen-Vercoe, at the University of Guelph.

Approximately 2,700 Canadians get diagnosed with persistent C. difficile infections every year. Dr. Louie offers the fecal transplant poop pill therapy to patients whose infections don't get rectified by drugs.

"They pretty much work 19 times out of 20," says Louie.

These pills are considered to be very effective in curbing the recurring infections caused by the bacterium.

"The anecdotal evidence is so powerful that I think it is very unlikely this is not going to become standard of care," says Dr. Ted Steiner, an infectious diseases physician at Vancouver General Hospital. "We might be able to dramatically reduce the incidence of C. Difficile."