To protect the intestine from two bacteria resistant to antibiotics (Enterococcus faecium (ERV) and Klebsiella pneumonia), it would suffice to transplant feces into the body. Conclusions obtained in the laboratory on mice.
Antibiotic resistance is a growing problem in healthcare settings. Colonization of the intestine with bacteria resistant to antibiotics makes it easier for them to spread between patients and leads to other infections. Infectious disease researchers at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City performed tests on mice to fight these bacteria. By transplanting feces, they were able to prevent the two bacteria from colonizing the rodent digestive tracts.
“Transplanting feces from a healthy animal into the gut into the infected animal prevented the two bacteria from colonizing its digestive tract,” says Eric Pamer, head of the infectious disease department at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer. Center in New York.
This new research confirms unusual conclusions researchers from the infectious diseases department, Boston General Hospital (United States) published in 2014. They revealed that fecal microbiota capsules can treat nosocomial infectious diarrhea. The transplantation of stools from healthy donors made it possible to “occupy the ground” and, consequently, to heal (the bacteria no longer having room to proliferate).
Antibiotic resistance, a public health problem
“Beyond faecal transplantation, it is imperative to ensure the rational use of existing antibiotics, to better detect bacteria and find new solutions to stop the development of new super-bacteria”, recalls Mark Morisson, president of the department of microbial biology at the University of Queensland (United States), cited by the site Metronews.fr
Indeed, antibiotic resistance is on the rise for many different pathogenic bacteria that pose health threats. “If we do not take meaningful steps to better prevent infections but also to change the way we produce, prescribe and use antibiotics, we will gradually lose these benefits for global public health and the consequences will be devastating”, says Keiji Fukuda, Assistant Director General of the World Health Organization, for health security.
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