For the first time, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved a treatment that’s made using donated human poop, the agency announced(opens in new tab) Wednesday (Nov. 30). The treatment, called Rebyota, contains gut bacteria collected from the stool of healthy human donors and is approved for the prevention of a potentially life-threatening bacterial infection.
By administering the liquid treatment into a patient’s rectum through a tube, doctors can help restore balance to the patient’s gut microbiome, the community of microbes living in the lower digestive tract.