Paris hospital offers to pay Parisians €50 per poo (and ends up clogged with volunteers)
Parisians are queuing up to take advantage of a nice little earner after a hospital advertised that it would pay €50 for each stool sample provided, in the name of scientific research. And there is a backlog of volunteers.
The Saint-Antoine hospital in the east of the French capital is asking for members of the public to donate their faeces for research purposes.
The establishment is searching for "healthy volunteers to provide one or several stools" and those who stump up the goods will earn themselves €50 if they are selected to take part.
Before you head over to Hôpital Saint-Antoine there are are conditions, however. Volunteers need to be aged between 18 and 49-years-old and be part of the French health insurance system.
Volunteers must also not be undergoing any kind of medical treatment.
The samples will be used as part of research into inflammatory bowel disease.
"The objective of this study is to evaluate the efficacy of fecal microbiota transplantation on the evolution of the disease," reads a notice put up in the hospital that has been widely shared on social media.
And the hospital isn't short of volunteers.
"The telephone number given on the appeal has been overloaded," hospital chiefs told France Info.
Fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) is the administration of a solution of fecal matter from a donor into the intestinal tract of a recipient in order to directly change the recipient’s microbial composition to benefit their health.
It has been recognised as an authorised treatment in France since 2014 although only 30 hospitals carry out the procedure.
There is no "stool bank" in France contrary to the United States or the Netherlands.
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The Saint-Antoine hospital in the east of the French capital is asking for members of the public to donate their faeces for research purposes.
The establishment is searching for "healthy volunteers to provide one or several stools" and those who stump up the goods will earn themselves €50 if they are selected to take part.
Before you head over to Hôpital Saint-Antoine there are are conditions, however. Volunteers need to be aged between 18 and 49-years-old and be part of the French health insurance system.
Volunteers must also not be undergoing any kind of medical treatment.
The samples will be used as part of research into inflammatory bowel disease.
"The objective of this study is to evaluate the efficacy of fecal microbiota transplantation on the evolution of the disease," reads a notice put up in the hospital that has been widely shared on social media.
And the hospital isn't short of volunteers.
"The telephone number given on the appeal has been overloaded," hospital chiefs told France Info.
Fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) is the administration of a solution of fecal matter from a donor into the intestinal tract of a recipient in order to directly change the recipient’s microbial composition to benefit their health.
It has been recognised as an authorised treatment in France since 2014 although only 30 hospitals carry out the procedure.
There is no "stool bank" in France contrary to the United States or the Netherlands.
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