Helicobacter pylori Infection among Patients Visiting a Clinic in Kasama City, Ibaraki Prefecture

Prevalence and Risk Factors for Helicobacter Pylori Infection among Healthy Inhabitants in Northern Jakarta, Indonesia

Background: The prevalence of Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection in Indonesia has been reported to be exceedingly low. The purpose of our study was to confirm whether this is the case in Northern Jakarta using a sensitive 13C-urea breath test (UBT), and to examine any associations with lifestyle/environment factors and potential routes of transmission. Methods: We recruited a total of 196 subjects from a low-income community in Northern Jakarta, Indonesia, data from 193 who completed a questionnaire about their lifestyle/environment and had UBT being included as the final. Odds ratios (ORs) adjusted for sex and age with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated using a logistic regression model. Results: The overall H. pylori infection rate was 15.0% (95%CI, 10.3-20.9), with variation among Javanese (9.1%, total=77), Buginese (40.0%, 35), Betawi (9.1%, 33), Sundanese (3.7%, 27), and Batak (40.0%, 5). On multivariate analysis, the ORs for intake of soybean milk, cucumber more than once a week, infrequent hand washing practice before meals, and alcohol consumption were 0.10 (95%CI: 0.01-0.97), 6.61 (95%CI: 1.87-23.3), 4.10 (95%CI: 1.15-14.6), and 61.9 (95%CI: 1.67-2300.8), respectively. Rates for Buginese (OR=7.84; 95%CI: 1.82-33.8) and Batak (OR=20.1; 95%CI: 1.90-213.2) were significantly higher than for Javanese. Conclusions: The H. pylori infection rate in this study was relatively low, in line with previous studies. Regarding ethnicity factors, Buginese and Batak reported eating food using fingers more frequently than Javanese, Betawi, and Sundanese. Our study indicated that person-person transmission is possible in this low prevalence area. The low infection rates for H. pylori among Javanese, Betawi, and Sundanese ethnics could be partly due to their sanitary practices.

Community-driven research on environmental sources of H. pylori infection in arctic Canada

The role of environmental reservoirs in H. pylori transmission remains uncertain due to technical difficulties in detecting living organisms in sources outside the stomach. Residents of some Canadian Arctic communities worry that contamination of the natural environment is responsible for the high prevalence of H. pylori infection in the region. This analysis aims to estimate associations between exposure to potential environmental sources of biological contamination and prevalence of H. pylori infection in Arctic Canada. Using data from 3 community-driven H. pylori projects in the Northwest and Yukon Territories, we estimated effects of environmental exposures on H. pylori prevalence, using odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) from multilevel logistic regression models to adjust for household and community effects. Investigated exposures include: untreated drinking water; livestock; dogs; cats; mice or mouse droppings in the home; cleaning fish or game. Our analysis did not identify environmental exposures associated clearly with increased H. pylori prevalence, except any exposure to mice or mouse droppings (OR = 4.6, CI = 1.2-18), reported by 11% of participants. Our multilevel models showed H. pylori clustering within households, but environmental exposures accounted for little of this clustering; instead, much of it was accounted for by household composition (especially: having infected household members; number of children). Like the scientific literature on this topic, our results do not clearly implicate or rule out environmental reservoirs of H. pylori; thus, the topic remains a priority for future research. Meanwhile, H. pylori prevention research should seek strategies for reducing direct transmission from person to person.

Helicobacter Pylori Infection in Waste Pickers: A Case Control Seroprevalence Study

Background

The epidemiology of Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection in waste pickers had not been previously studied. This study aims to determine the association of H. pylori seropositivity and waste picking activity; and to determine socio-demographic, clinical, work, and behavioral characteristics associated with H. pylori seropositivity in waste pickers.

Methods

Through a case-control study design, we examined 90 waste pickers and 90 age- and gender-matched control subjects for the presence of anti-H. pylori IgG antibodies using enzyme-linked immunoassays. Seroprevalence association with socio-demographic, clinical, work and behavioral characteristics of the waste pickers were also investigated.

Results

Antibodies to H. pylori were found in 60 (66.7%) of the 90 waste pickers and in 51 (56.7%) of the 90 controls (P = 0.16). Stratification by age showed that waste pickers aged 14 -30 years old had significantly higher frequency of H. pylori infection than controls of the same age group (56.5% versus 35.6%, respectively; P = 0.04). The seroprevalence of H. pylori infection was not influenced by gender, age, educational level, socioeconomic status, residence, or housing conditions of waste pickers. The presence of underlying diseases and the frequency of gastritis were similar among H. pylori positive and H. pylori negative waste pickers. Logistic regression analysis showed that the duration (years) in the waste picking activity was positively associated with H. pylori exposure (OR = 2.76; 95% CI: 1.22 - 6.25; P = 0.01). In contrast, consumption of alcohol was negatively associated with H. pylori exposure (OR = 0.27; 95% CI: 0.09 - 0.78; P = 0.01). Other work or behavioral characteristics of waste pickers including washing hands before eating, eating from the garbage, animal contacts, consumption of unpasteurized milk, unwashed raw vegetables, fruits, or untreated water, and contact with soil were not associated with H. pylori exposure.

Conclusions

This is the first report on the seroprevalence of H. pylori infection among waste pickers and the factors contributing to such exposure. Results warrant for further research on the potential role of contact with garbage for H. pylori infection.

A new model for the transmission of Helicobacter pylori: role of environmental reservoirs as gene pools to increase strain diversity

Twenty-five years after the first successful cultivation and isolation of Helicobacter pylori, the scientific community is still struggling to understand the way(s) this bacterium is transmitted among the human population. Here, both epidemiologic and microbiologic evidence addressing this matter is reviewed and explored to conclude that most H. pylori successful colonizations are derived from direct person-to-person contact and that even though exposure of humans to H. pylori from environmental sources is a very common event, in most occasions the host is able to fight off infection. In addition, under a new model developed here, we propose that the near elimination of environmental reservoirs is the main responsible for the lower prevalence observed in the more industrialized countries by acting on two levels: by decreasing the number of direct infections and by diminishing the number of intraspecies recombination events for producing strain variation within H. pylori.

Trends in stomach and pancreatic cancer incidence and mortality in England and Wales, 1951-2000

BACKGROUND

The aim of this study was to describe period and cohort effects in incidence and mortality of stomach and pancreatic cancer in England and Wales.

METHODS

National figures for mortality (1951-2000) and incidence (1971-2000) were analysed using log-linear Poisson regression models to obtain relative risks (RR) for period (year of incidence or death) and cohort (year of birth).

RESULTS

Stomach cancer shows a pronounced cohort effect in mortality with a decline in RR in men from 2.20 (1876) to 0.47 (1946) and a reduction from 2.79 to 0.41 for women. Mortality to incidence ratios are now less than 0.70. Pancreatic cancer mortality (men) RR rose from 0.91 (1951-1955) to a peak 1.11 (1976-1980) and then declined to 0.90 (1996-2000). Women showed a similar pattern. Cohort RR (men) increased to a peak of 1.14 in 1916 and declined to 1.01 in 1946, and continued to fall; the peak occurred slightly later in women. Mortality to incidence ratios were near 1 in the first 20 years, declining to 0.95 in the last 10 years.

CONCLUSION

Stomach cancer incidence has fallen continuously from 19(th) century birth cohorts onwards. Incidence of pancreatic cancer has fallen in successive birth cohorts after 1920; peak period risk was 1976-1990. Age-standardized mortality and case mortality for pancreatic cancer are declining.