This I did not know...

Hospital superbug Clostridium difficile... can cause nasty diarrhoea and in some cases is fatal. The usual treatment for the infection, which affects over half a million people in the US each year, involves a strong course of antibiotics. But the infection returns in about 20 per cent of cases, and some people become chronically infected.

One treatment appears to be remarkably successful. It involves ingesting the faeces of healthy individuals – either via a tube to the stomach or colon – to help repopulate their guts with so-called good bacteria. This boosts defenses against reinfection and unpleasant as it may sound, works in around 90 per cent of cases.