Giardia Outbreak

[Dean F.]

>>> One thing you guys are forgetting is what happens if a general surgeon nicks the intestine during surgery? You guessed it…serious infection. Because the bacteria leaking out of the gut are not meant to be in other parts of the body. Yes, you CAN infect yourself with your own intestinal bacteria. Where's Dean the general surgeon when you need him?

I heard my name? How did I miss this?

Yes, the scenario as described is generally Very Bad. But that's a sterile cavity- not what is being discussed here.

That said, we occasionally treat some of the worse problems with out-of-whack intestinal flora by having the patient eat a close relative's p00p, either with or without sterilizing their gut with antibiotics first. Well, sort of- the p00p specimen gets put into a gel capsule. The thinking is that a close relative is most likely to have bacterial gut strains that the patient will tolerate, or even the SAME gut strains as they had before they got sick if they happen to live together in close quarters. It's hard to say if they go through a period of distress after doing this, since the reason most have this done is BECAUSE of severe intestinal distress.

I would support the proposition that getting inoculated with a new (for you) strain of eColi might cause a transient intestinal distress if you hadn't had it before, even if the strain is otherwise not pathologic. The new population might boom, in theory, before your system got it under control. Maybe. Hard to imagine infecting yourself, though, but I again make no promises- ask a gastroenterologist. My dealings with the GI tract are essentially the medical equivalent of being a plumber. (Really- it conceptually isn't that complex…) So ask the smart guys.

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