Unless you're a detective, a thief or a strangely nosy person,
you wouldn't take your neighbor's trash and dump it in your
kitchen, let alone consume it. On the other hand, if you were
dying of scurvy, those limes they threw away after last night's
margarita party might look surprisingly appetizing. Accepting a
transplant of someone else's stool, however carefully tested,
might sound just as extreme, but -- thanks in part to its
effectiveness in treating the intractable bug Clostridium
difficile -- fecal microbiota transplantation might just be the
next big thing in medicine [sources: Grady; Hudson; Mayo
Clinic]. C. difficile, an emerging epidemic in hospitals and
nursing homes, primarily affects older patients during long
stays in care facilities. Like opportunistic weeds, the bacteria
move into areas of the gut decimated by the very antibiotics
intended to oust infections (antibiotics don't distinguish
bacterial friend from foe). Once in the gut, C. difficile cranks
out toxins that damage the intestinal lin