the epidemiology of infections with Clostridioides difficile and multidrug-resistant bacteria, and faecal microbiota transplantation as an intervention strategy

Abstract

This thesis is divided into three parts. The first part of this thesis describes the epidemiology of infections with Clostridioides difficile, meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and colistin-resistant Enterobacterales. An important treatment strategy for recurrent C. difficile infections is restoring the disturbed gut microbiota by faecal microbiota transplantation (FMT). The second part discusses the risk of transmission of pathogenic and/or multidrug-resistant bacteria via FMT and procedures to prevent this. Apart from recurrent C. difficile infections, several new potential indications of FMT are being explored. In the third part of this thesis, FMT is explored as a potential new treatment strategy for several neurological disorders, with a main focus on Parkinson’s disease.