Poo donation: Your poo could help save lives of patients with rare disease - Red Cross

The Red Cross is making a rather unusual request of residents of Perth to donate their poo for a good cause. The Lifeblood Microbiota Donor Centre in Australia – the only one in the country – is running out of donors as many have had Covid-19 or the cold/flu, DailyMail reports.

Lifesaving poo

The charitable organization is asking that at least 2,400 residents of Perth sign up have their poo processed into life-saving faecal microbiota in transplant treatments for patients suffering infections like Clostridioides difficile.

Eligible donors must be between 18 and 50 and must not have caught Covid-19. Donors should also be generally healthy and not be taking prescribed medication, although the contraceptive pill is excluded from this requirement, DailyMail stated.

Silvana Miney, Perth A/Microbiome Manager said donors must also be able to regularly donate at the Microbiota Donor Centre in Perth CBD.

It might seem like an unusual request, but there are more than a trillion life-saving microorganisms in your gut. Your healthy microbiota, something that normally gets flushed away, could be used to make FMT that can transform and even saves lives.

The more, the merrier

The human gut microbiome is made up of at least 1,000 species of bacteria some of which are associated with disease, while the healthy ones interact positively with the immune system to impact several aspects of health including your heart and weight. Miney explained:

FMT (faecal microbiota) is made by collecting stool from a healthy donor, testing and processing it, then supplying it to hospitals to transplant to patients.

She added that out of 100 enquiries, just one person will be eligible to donate, thus the need for more people to do away with the stigma and sign-up to donate their faeces. Check the Australian Red Cross website for more information.

Read more:

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