The Food and Drug Administration has issued a Safety Alert warning of the potential risk of serious, life-threatening infection in patients who receive fecal microbiota transplant for Clostridioides difficile infection.
The FDA has received six reports of infection associated with fecal microbiota transplant from a stool bank company based in the United States: Two patients had enteropathogenic Escherichia coli (EPEC) infection, and four had shiga toxin–producing E. coli (STEC). The two EPEC infections came from two separate donors, but the four STEC infections came from a single donor, according to the FDA.
In addition, two patients died after receiving fecal microbiota transplant from the donor associated with the STEC infections. These patients died before any of the STEC infections were reported to the FDA; as their stool was not tested for STEC, it is unclear whether it contributed to their deaths.
The use of fecal microbiota transplant is still investigational, and as such, patients should be made aware by health care providers of the risks, which include the potential for transmission of pathogenic bacteria and the resultant adverse events, the FDA said in the press release.
© Frontline Medical Communications 2018-2021. Reprinted with permission, all rights reserved.
