Individual Suffers Lethal Blood Contamination from Commonly Employed Probiotic
A series of unfortunate events led to a man's death due to probiotics. In a recent case study, physicians in Japan explained how the man developed a lethal blood infection from a popular supplement he was using to aid in his recovery from COVID-19.
Medical professionals from Fujita Health University Hospital in Tokyo recounted this extraordinary incident in a paper published earlier this month in BMJ Case Reports, involving a man in his 70s.
This elderly man was admitted to an intensive care unit with a severe COVID-19 case. He was administered medications to suppress his immune system, a common practice for severe COVID-19 patients. He recovered after some time and was subsequently discharged from the ICU. However, these medications may have caused him to experience diarrhea. So, he was prescribed a probiotic supplement containing the bacterium Clostridium butyricum, a widely used treatment for diarrhea in Japan, as per the doctors. He had been taking this supplement for a month when he started experiencing severe abdominal pain. Despite the doctors' best efforts, his condition deteriorated rapidly, as his organs started failing, ultimately leading to his demise.
The doctors discovered that the man had developed septicemia, or a blood infection. Further analysis revealed that the infection was caused by a strain of C. butyricum that matched the strain isolated from the man’s supplement. As far as the doctors are aware, this is the first reported "definitive probiotics-related C. butyricum [septicemia] after treatment of severe COVID-19."
Probiotics are meant to restore a person's unbalanced microbiome. C. butyricum, in particular, has been studied as a potential treatment for persistent Clostridioides difficile infections and as a booster for cancer immunotherapy (the microbiome is believed to influence the body's response to immunotherapy). However, "while probiotics are routinely prescribed to ill patients with various gastrointestinal symptoms and conditions, rare yet severe adverse events may occur, as demonstrated in this report," the doctors wrote.
This isn't the first incident where this "beneficial" bacteria has caused trouble. The bacteria is known to be a rare culprit of botulism. In fact, a separate group of researchers in Japan reported five cases of septicemia linked to C. butyricum supplements earlier this May. The majority of these cases occurred in individuals with weakened immune systems, similar to this recent report. Therefore, extra caution should be exercised when administering this and other probiotics to such patients.
“Our findings highlight the risk of septicemia resulting from probiotic use, especially in hospitalized patients, necessitating careful prescription practices,” the researchers from the May study concluded.
The medical community is now questioning the safety of using probiotics, particularly those containing C. butyricum, in the future, especially for individuals with weakened immune systems, due to the potential risk of severe adverse events like septicemia. With advancements in science and technology, it's crucial to conduct more extensive research on the long-term effects and potential risks associated with probiotic supplements.
