So-called ‘poo pills’ are being trialled by UK doctors in a bid to clear dangerous super bug infections. In a potential breakthrough doctors believe there are “really promising signals” that pills containing freeze-dried faeces can help combat the rising surge of dangerous super bug infections.
The stool samples come from healthy donors and are packed full with good bacteria. Once inside a person’s body the pills go to war with the super bugs by battling for food and space on the lining of the gut. They either rid the body of them completely or “reduce them down to a level that doesn’t cause problems”, says Dr Merrick. Super bugs are germs like bacteria, fungi, and viruses that have developed antibiotic resistance.
Typically, to treat the disease, healthcare professionals prescribe a medicine that will block the germ.
This gives the immune system time to clear the germ out of the body. However, if the germ changes so that it survives the medicine, that germ is called drug-resistant.
The trial has taken place on 41 patients at Guy’s and St Thomas’ hospitals in London to lay the groundwork for a large-scale study with promising signs.
Patients were given pills made from faeces which people had donated to a stool bank. These stool samples were tested to ensure it does not contain any harmful bugs, undigested food is removed.
It is then freeze dried into a powder and stored inside a pill. Once it reaches the intestines the pill dissolves to release its poopy powdery payload.
“It’s very exciting. There’s a real shift from 20 years ago where all bacteria and viruses were assumed to do you harm; to now where we realise they are completely necessary to our overall health,” says Dr Merrick.
It will be a landmark moment if these pills are proven to work against super bugs in larger studies then the researchers think they could be used for both treatment and prevention in people at risk.