Microbiology In The News Article Summary

Microbiology in the News: Fecal Transplants Zimmer’s article on fecal transplants (2016), discusses how the effectiveness of transporting healthy stool to sick individuals has led to a series of unanswered questions and beliefs. For years scientists were unsuccessful in finding a use for this type of treatment. The breakthrough came about during a trial experiment using the procedure to treat a serious bacterial infection; Clostridium difficile. Clostridium difficile is a bacterium that causes infectious diarrhea which can lead to inflammation of the colon (Day, 2016). It is a life threatening infection. The article does not state how a fecal transplant is performed but Zimmer does state that as a part of their research, scientists took spores from healthy feces and put them inside pills to give to patients who were infected with Clostridium difficile. The pills were given to thirty people and twenty-nine recovered. With results like that, scientists were eager to see what other diseases could be
His work was easy to read and understand, and he definitely addressed an important topic in microbiology. He informed readers about all of the microorganisms living inside of our feces and how they can ultimately be beneficial to treating bacterial infections that may be inside our gastrointestinal tract. The information that was provided in the article leaves a positive impact on the general public. Although Zimmer never stated what Clostridium difficile actually was, if there is an individual that has been diagnosed with the infection, he or she would have hope that when antibiotics failed that there is another alternative. I also think it is important for people to know that not all fecal matter is disease riddle, and that in fact our “poop” can actually save someone else’s life. All in all it was an interesting