Yuck Factor

Gee, you think?

Once a year, every year, Professor Thomas Borody receives a single-stem rose from one of his most grateful patients. She is, he says, thanking him for restoring her bowel flora.

It’s a distasteful cure for a problem that’s increasingly widespread: the Clostridium difficile bug, typically caught by patients in hospitals and nursing homes, can be hard to treat with antibiotics. But Borody is one of a group of scientists who believe the answer is a faecal transplant.

Some jokily call it a “transpoosion.” Others have more sciencey names like “bacteriotherapy” or “stool infusion therapy.” But the process involves, frankly, replacing a person’s poo with someone else’s, and in the process, giving them back the “good” bugs they desperately need.

…

There’s little doubt this treatment has an image problem. Faeces, including important bowel flora, is transferred from a volunteer donor — screened to limit possible other infections — into the colon of the infected patient. The treatment can be administered by a colonoscope or an enema, or by the mouth or the nose.

Erm. It seems very unhygienic. Especially the last two options. Or the whole idea. I understand the concept, but am not sure I’d be able to get past the yuck factor on this one…