Two dead, four hospitalized after receiving OpenBiome stool transplants

Two people died and four were hospitalized after they received stool transplants from OpenBiome, the FDA and the commercial stool bank said, Kate Sheridan reports in STAT Plus. Eight patients in all may have been affected. In the six patients who are still alive, OpenBiome identified the type of bacteria present in the stool that caused the infections. In those who died, neither the agency nor the company can definitively say that the transplants caused those deaths. Less than a year ago, the FDA revealed the first two deaths conclusively related to the procedure. The treatments have been lauded as potentially lifesaving for recurrent C. difficile infections, which kill about 12,800 Americans each year.