OpenBiome Paying For Stool Samples
The non-profit company OpenBiome is paying for stool samples so they can make fecal transplant treatments for those infected with Clostridium difficile, a bacteria which is highly resistant to antibiotics. People with this infection have symptoms such as severe diarrahea. 250,000 Americans are hospitalized each year and 14,000 deaths are caused. Using an antibiotic for a long time can make this happen and it is difficult to treat. Microbiota (a person’s gut) is almost wiped out.
The most effective treatment is a fecal transplant. Invasive nasogastric tubes or colonoscopies are relied on by doctors in order to put the donor feces into the guts of the patients. The process is difficult but very successful. Another method is to use pellets of frozen poop that thaw out in the body and release the contents in the small intestines. Donors provide multiple samples per week and OpenBiome pays pay them.
