The Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital yesterday said that, on Dec. 23, it had performed the first successful fecal microbiota transplant (FMT) on a liver transplant recipient in Taiwan.
The procedure was performed on a 52-year-old man surnamed Lee (李) who received a liver transplant at the hospital seven years ago, the hospital said.
Lee returned to work after receiving the liver transplant and was regularly taking a low dosage of anti-rejection medication, it said.
However, over the past three months, he had been experiencing diarrhea on average six times a day, the hospital said.
A stool culture found he had contracted a Clostridium difficile infection, it said, adding that he was hospitalized and given antibiotics, but his condition did not improve.
After discussions between the hospital’s FMT and liver transplant teams, doctors performed an FMT, the hospital said.
The procedure was performed through a colonoscopy, it said, adding that the patient’s condition has since improved.
Since October last year, the hospital has performed five successful FMTs after regulatory changes were made in September 2018, hospital gastroenterologist Tsai Ming-chao (蔡明釗) said.
The majority of the recipients were elderly patients with chronic conditions and imbalances in gut microbiota caused by long-term or high-dose antibiotic treatment, he said, adding that in all five cases, the healthy fecal microflora were provided by the Linkou Chang Gung Memorial Hospital.
Donors are legally required to receive physical examinations, and samples must be stored at certified labs, he said.
Cancer, surgeries, transplants, chronic illnesses, antibiotic usage and other factors can trigger C. difficile infections, he said, adding that he hopes the procedure will benefit more people.
Actress Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛) has “returned home” to Taiwan, and there are no plans to hold a funeral for the TV star who died in Japan from influenza- induced pneumonia, her family said in a statement Wednesday night. The statement was released after local media outlets reported that Barbie Hsu’s ashes were brought back Taiwan on board a private jet, which arrived at Taipei Songshan Airport around 3 p.m. on Wednesday. To the reporters waiting at the airport, the statement issued by the family read “(we) appreciate friends working in the media for waiting in the cold weather.” “She has safely returned home.
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Twenty-four Republican members of the US House of Representatives yesterday introduced a concurrent resolution calling on the US government to abolish the “one China” policy and restore formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan. Led by US representatives Tom Tiffany and Scott Perry, the resolution calls for not only re-establishing formal relations, but also urges the US Trade Representative to negotiate a free-trade agreement (FTA) with Taiwan and for US officials to advocate for Taiwan’s full membership in the UN and other international organizations. In a news release announcing the resolution, Tiffany, who represents a Wisconsin district, called the “one China” policy “outdated, counterproductive
MUST REMAIN FREE: A Chinese takeover of Taiwan would lead to a global conflict, and if the nation blows up, the world’s factories would fall in a week, a minister said Taiwan is like Prague in 1938 facing Adolf Hitler; only if Taiwan remains free and democratic would the world be safe, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) said in an interview with Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. The ministry on Saturday said Corriere della Sera is one of Italy’s oldest and most read newspapers, frequently covers European economic and political issues, and that Wu agreed to an interview with the paper’s senior political analyst Massimo Franco in Taipei on Jan. 3. The interview was published on Jan. 26 with the title “Taiwan like Prague in 1938 with Hitler,” the ministry
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