Tainted donations from stool bank reignite safety concerns about poop transplants
Last year, the death of an immuno-compromised elderly patient in a fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) trial at the Massachusetts General Hospital — due to a stool donation that contained a rare type of E. coli bacteria — sent shivers across the field.
Now, another incident has come to light — this time emanating from the non-profit stool bank OpenBiome — in which tainted stool made six patients sick, four of whom were hospitalized. Two other FMT recipients whose transplants comprised OpenBiome’s product also died.
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