Man Catches Fatal Blood Infection From ‘Widely Used’ Probiotic

An unlucky concatenation of events seems to person resulted successful a man’s decease from probiotics. In a caller lawsuit report, doctors successful Japan item however the antheral developed a fatal humor corruption caused by a fashionable supplement helium had been taking to assistance with his betterment from covid-19.

Doctors from Fujita Health University Hospital successful Tokyo relayed the bizarre communicative successful a insubstantial published earlier this period successful BMJ Case Reports, which progressive a antheral successful his 70s.

The antheral had been admitted to an intensive attraction portion with a terrible bout of covid-19. He was fixed drugs to dampen his immune system, which are routinely utilized for terrible COVID cases. He recovered and was yet discharged from the ICU. The drugs whitethorn person caused the antheral to person diarrhea, however. So helium was prescribed a probiotic supplement containing the bacterium Clostridium butyricum, a “widely used” attraction for diarrhea successful Japan, according to the doctors. He had been taking the supplement for a period erstwhile helium started having terrible tummy pain. Despite his doctors’ efforts, the man’s information rapidly worsened arsenic his organs began to neglect and helium soon died.

The doctors recovered that the antheral had developed bacteraemia, oregon a humor infection. Further investigating revealed that the corruption was caused by a strain of C. butyricum that was a familial lucifer to the strain of bacteria isolated from the man’s supplement. As acold arsenic the doctors know, this is the archetypal reported “case of definitive probiotics-related C. butyricum [bacteremia ] aft attraction of terrible COVID-19.”

Probiotics are intended to assistance equilibrium retired a person’s unhealthy microbiome. And C. butyricum successful peculiar has been studied arsenic a imaginable attraction for recurrent Clostridioides difficile infections and arsenic a booster to crab immunotherapy (the microbiome is thought to power a person’s response to the latter). “While probiotics are routinely prescribed [to] sick patients with assorted gastrointestinal symptoms and conditions, uncommon yet terrible adverse events whitethorn occur, arsenic exemplified successful this report,” the doctors wrote.

This isn’t the archetypal lawsuit of this usually “good” bacteria causing superior trouble. The bacteria is known to beryllium a rare cause of botulism. And earlier this May, a abstracted squad of researchers successful Japan reported 5 cases of bacteremia traced backmost to C. butyricum supplements. As with this latest report, astir of these cases occurred successful radical who had weakened immune systems. So astatine the precise least, much attraction mightiness beryllium needed successful giving this and different probiotics to specified patients.

“Our findings underscore the hazard for bacteremia resulting from probiotic use, particularly successful hospitalized patients, necessitating judicious medicine practices,” the researchers of the May insubstantial wrote.