Somehow, fecal microbiota transplantation is a real, scientific treatment that actually cures diseases. That is, in real life, not an Austin Powers film or a bad episode of South Park, you can get other people’s poop implanted into your colon to treat your Clostridium difficile, a deadly digestive infection. And it works!
But until now, there’s been no place to legally have the procedure done. Fortunately, OpenBiome, a Massachusetts based company, has filled the fecal-transplant hole. PopSci has more:
Now the FDA allows OpenBiome to deliver transplants to treat C. diff, and it considers the fecal material to be a drug. Some have argued, quite sensibly, that it doesn’t make sense to treat poop as a drug, since–let’s just be honest–it’s not. Instead, scientists argue in the journal Nature, given the special nature of poop (haha) and the potential for the procedure to transfer healthy bacteria from one person to another, fecal transplants deserve their own set of rules that make them easier to study and use in medicine.
Well then.
(Photo: Wikipedia)
