Fecal capsules could provide easier means of stopping gut infection.

The New York Times (10/12, A21, Belluck, Subscription Publication), cites research, newly published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, in which 20 people were given experimental capsules containing” strained, centrifuged and frozen” fecal material that could help clear up infections of Clostridium difficile, which causes serious diarrhea and kills 14,000 Americans annually. The study builds on previous research indicating fecal transplants could help reset the balance of bacteria in the gut. If the volunteer-to-patient results are replicated in larger trials, “the pill, developed at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, promises an easier, cheaper and most likely safer alternative” to the “unpleasant procedure” of fecal transplantation.

        The Washington Post (10/11, Feltman) provides details of fecal transplants, pointing out that instead of pumping fecal liquid from a donor into a patient, “it’s concentrated into a single capsule.” A single treatment “requires a gulp-worthy 30 pills — 15 on the first day and 15 on the second.” Still, the paper notes, “don’t knock it: In a trial of 20 patients, it brought normal bowel health and function to 18 — which is the same rate of success seen in more invasive methods.” Moreover, the cost of the therapy is cheaper, costing $500, “one sixth the price of either a colonoscopy or a standard course of antibiotics.”

        The Los Angeles Times (10/11, Kaplan) notes that several studies have showed that the transplants “really work.” The paper reports that In a breakthrough report unveiled last year in the New England Journal of Medicine, “researchers reported that CDI patients who got a fecal transplant (in addition to a bowel cleansing and the antibiotic vancomycin) fared far better than those who didn’t.” According to the piece, of the 16 patients in the fecal transplant group, “13 saw their infections clear up after one treatment and two of the remaining three got better after a second treatment – an overall cure rate of 94%.”

        The news was also covered by Bloomberg News(10/11, Cortez), NPR (10/11), TIME (10/13) and BBC News(10/11, Mundasad).