Merrick

The focus is on the bowels which are "the biggest reservoir of antibiotic resistance in humans" says Dr Blair Merrick, who has been testing the pills at Guys and St Thomas' hospitals.

"So there's a lot of interest in 'can you get rid of them from the gut?'," says Dr Merrick.

Dr Merrick says there are "really promising signals" that poo pills could help tackle the rising scourge of superbugs and that donor bacteria could be going to microbial war with the superbugs as they compete over food and space on the lining of the gut and either rid the body of them completely or "reduce them down to a level that doesn't cause problems".

"It's very exciting. There's a real shift from 20 years ago where all bacteria and viruses were assumed to do you harm; to now where we realise they are completely necessary to our overall health," says Dr Merrick.

"A lot of these individuals come to a lot of harm from drug resistant organisms," Dr Merrick.