risk of bacteria helicobacter

[nawa755]

Hi..best..
My brother whch is 33years old has bacteria helicobacter....the question is
1-how much risk is it to care about him?
2-in which way can we protect him what is best for him to eat or drink...alkhol is effecting on him negativ?
best regard
writer soon
nawzad

[CoWriter]

"I asked about confirming that the bacteria was gone, but the GP told me a subsequent test would show positive because of antibodies."

A stool antigen test checks to see if substances that trigger the immune system to fight an H. Pylori infection are present in the stool. Stool antigen testing may be done to help support a diagnosis of H. Pylori infection or to determine whether treatment for an H. Pylori infection has been successful.


"Perhaps the progression of the HCV and the HP infection are linked? Just anecdotal."


There's certainly a connection.  You can have HCV in the stomach and H.Pylori in the liver.

Check out this study....they tested 75 patients with different types of liver disease (8 of them had Hep C).  52 out of 75 had H.Pylori in their stomachs.  And 2 of them had H.Pylori in their LIVER (one of them was a Hep C patient and the other one had fatty liver).  



Eur J Gastroenterol Hepatol. 2008 Jan

Identification of Helicobacter species by 16S rDNA PCR and sequence analysis in human liver samples from patients with various etiologies of benign liver diseases.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Several reports indicated an increased prevalence of the Helicobacter species in hepatocellular cancer tissue and in liver samples infected with hepatitis viruses. The frequency of Helicobacter spp. in benign liver diseases was, however, not thoroughly investigated. METHODS: Seventy-five consecutive patients with suspected liver disease were enrolled. The indications were hepatitis B virus (n=30), C virus (n=8), B and C dual infection (n=1), nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (n=27), autoimmune hepatitis (n=3), primary biliary cirrhosis (n=1) and idiopathic elevation of liver enzymes (n=5). PCR detection of 16S recombinant RNA gene of Helicobacter spp. was performed on liver samples. PCR products of positive samples were further identified by DNA sequencing. The patients also had upper gastrointestinal endoscopy and gastric biopsy for the detection of H. pylori using histopathology and PCR. RESULTS: Helicobacter spp. DNA was detected in two out of 75 liver biopsy samples (2.6%), which were typed as H. pylori by DNA sequencing. One of these patients had chronic hepatitis C infection (man, 51 years old) and the other had nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (woman, 44 years old). Fifty-two out of 75 of the patients (69.3%) had H. pylori infection in their stomachs. CONCLUSION: We have found that H. pylori infection is much less prevalent in benign liver diseases. The presence of H. pylori in nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) patients is a novel finding and this finding should be confirmed in a larger series.

[IAmTheWalrus]

I asked about confirming that the bacteria was gone, but the GP told me a subsequent test would show positive because of antibodies. He said if I continued to have symptoms he would scope me (maybe to test a tissue sample for the bacteria?).

Curiously, it was shortly after treatment for h. pylori that I was diagnosed with HCV. Perhaps the progression of the HCV and the HP infection are linked? Just anecdotal.

Thanks for the info and links. Very interesting!

Brent

[CoWriter]

"Do you mean to say that testing positive for h. pylori is a factor in TX success?"

Having H.Pylori infection DURING TREATMENT lowers your chances of SVR.....not if you had it in the past and got rid of it with medication.  

(But after you finish the antibiotics, it's a good idea to get tested again to make sure it's gone).

Because such a high percentage of cirrhotics have H.Pylori, and it is such a common infection....if I had cirrhosis and was planning on treating, I would get tested for it before starting.  Diagnosis can be made with a simple blood test and treatment is a couple of weeks of antibiotics.   It's an easy way of increasing your chances of SVR.

[IAmTheWalrus]

Do you mean to say that testing positive for h. pylori is a factor in TX success? Is this true even if you have already been treated for it?

[CoWriter]

Infection with H. Pylori triggers an immune response that causes inflammation, gastritis, and may eventually cause a stomach ulcer.


Cirrhosis is associated with having H.Pylori.  In this study, a total of 70.2% of cirrhotic patients and 47.5% of non-cirrhotic patients had H. Pylori.....  

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=12408515&dopt=Abstract



And having H. Pylori lowers the chances of Hep C treatment success.

SVR rate is lower for H.Pylori positive patients (19%) compared to H. Pylori negative patients (43%).  

http://www.hcvadvocate.org/news/reports/DDW_2005/May%2017%20HCV.htm#May17_2

[CoWriter]

or Flagyl...and Bismus....the ingredient in Peptobismol.  

[Trinity4]

H. pylori is contracted through oral infection. This means that it can be acquired through personal contact (such as kissing), through sharing common items (such as eating utensils or drinking cups), and through consumption of contaminated food items (such as water, meat, or vegetables). Of these routes of infection, person-to-person transmission is by far the most common. If you want to avoid H. pylori infection, good personal hygiene and safe food preparation methods are the best primary defense.

But once you are infected, is there any way to get rid of H. pylori? Fortunately, there is. Triple drug therapy employs three different drugs: two are antibiotics (usually amoxicillin and clarithromycin), and they're teamed up with a third, a proton pump inhibitor such as omeprazole (Prilosec®) or lansoprazole (Prevacid®) to reduce stomach acid. These drugs must be taken, usually twice daily, for a period of 7 to 14 days
Avoid alcohol -  it causes additional irritation to the stomach.