About Heliobacter pylori:
- It is a common type ofbacteria that grows in the digestive tract of human and tends to attack the stomach lining.
- It is adapted to live in the harsh, acidic environment of the stomach.
- It infects a person usually during childhood. Its infections are usually harmless, but they are responsible for most ulcers in the stomach and small intestine, called peptic ulcers.
- Infections with pyloriaffect over 43 percent of the world’s population with a wide range of gastrointestinal disorders, including peptic ulcers, gastritis, dyspepsia and even gastric cancer.
- How it survives in stomach?
- This bacterium can change the environment around it and reduce the acidity so it can survive more easily.
- The spiral shape of pylori allows it to penetrate the stomach lining, where it’s protected by mucus and the body’s immune cells cannot reach it.
- When signs or symptoms do occur with pylori infection, they are typically related to gastritis or a peptic ulcer and may include:
- An ache or burning pain in stomach (abdomen)
- Nausea, loss of appetite and unintentional weight loss etc.
- Treatment: It can be treated with a combination of antibiotics and a proton-pump inhibitor. This treatment is sometimes referred to as triple therapy.
- The proton pump inhibitor includes esomeprazole, lansoprazole, omeprazole, pantoprazole, rabeprazole sodium.
- Antibiotics includes clarithromycin, metronidazole, amoxicillin.
