How to prepare stool banks for an appropriate response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic: Experiences in the Netherlands and a retrospective comparative cohort study for faecal microbiota transplantation.

Background: Faecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) is an efficacious treatment for patients with recurrent Clostridioides difficile infections (rCDI). Stool banks facilitate FMT by providing screened faecal suspensions from highly selected healthy donors. Due to the ongoing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and the potential risk of SARS coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) transmission via FMT, many stool banks were forced to temporarily halt and adjust donor activities.

Periodic screening of donor faeces with a quarantine period to prevent transmission of multidrug-resistant organisms during faecal microbiota transplantation: a retrospective cohort study.

Background: On June 13, 2019, the US Food and Drug Administration issued a warning after transfer of faeces containing an extended-spectrum β-lactamase (ESBL)-producing Escherichia coli by faecal microbiota transplantation led to bacteraemia in two immunocompromised patients. Consequently, we evaluated the effectiveness of the faeces donor-screening protocol of the Netherlands Donor Faeces Bank, which consists of screening of donors for multidrug-resistant organisms every 3 months, combined with additional screening on indication (eg, after travelling abroad) and application of a quarantine period for all faecal suspensions delivered within those 3 months.

Methods: We did a retrospective cohort study of data collected between Jan 1, 2015, and Oct 14, 2019, on the multidrug-resistant organism testing results of donor faeces.

Faecal microbiota transplantation for infection: Four years' experience of the Netherlands Donor Feces Bank.

Background: The Netherlands Donor Feces Bank provides standardized ready-to-use donor faecal suspensions for faecal microbiota transplantation treatment of patients with recurrent infection.

Objective: The purpose of this study was evaluation of safety, feasibility and outcome of faecal microbiota transplantation facilitated by a national stool bank.

Methods: The methods used included: observational cohort study of donors and recipients of faecal suspensions; assessment of donor screening and patient selection performed by an expert panel of medical microbiologists, gastroenterologists and infectious disease specialists; and patient outcome evaluated at different timepoints after faecal microbiota transplantation.

Human Transmission of Blastocystis by Fecal Microbiota Transplantation Without Development of Gastrointestinal Symptoms in Recipients.

Background: Patients with multiple recurrent Clostridioides difficile infections (rCDI) are treated with fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT), using feces provided by healthy donors. Blastocystis colonization of donors is considered an exclusion criterion, whereas its pathogenicity is still under debate.

Methods: The introduction of molecular screening for Blastocystis sp.