Hospital-Acquired Infection

MARCH 30, 2016

Nonpathogenic Viruses Transferred During Fecal Transplants

 
Communities of viruses can be transferred during fecal transplants. Fortunately for patients who use this procedure, the viruses appear to be harmless (mBio 2016 Mar 29. [Epub ahead of print]).
 
Fecal transplants for refractory Clostridium difficile infection offer more than a 90% cure rate, and the procedure is being tried for other gastrointestinal ailments, such as irritable bowel syndrome and ulcerative colitis. During a fecal transplant, stool collected from a