One person infected can infect the whole family. If you have these symptoms, you need to see a doctor as soon as possible.

Recently, Jiangsu Province released the "Jiangsu Province Helicobacter pylori Infection and Drug Resistance Map" for the first time. The map shows that the overall Hp infection rate of the tested population is 30.0%, among which the infection rate of adults is 32.7% and the infection rate of children is 11.4%.

What exactly is Helicobacter pylori that causes so many people to become ill?

What are the effects of infection?

Helicobacter pylori, referred to as Hp, is a Gram-negative bacillus with strong survival ability. It can survive in a strong acidic environment and is the only bacterium found so far that can survive in the stomach. Due to the habit of sharing meals, everyone eats from the same bowl of food and rarely uses serving chopsticks, so the infection rate is high, with about 56% of the population infected.
Literature indicates that children are susceptible to Helicobacter pylori, and infection within the family mainly occurs before the age of 12.

The infection rate of children of parents infected with Helicobacter pylori was 69.34%. The infection rate of children in Jiangsu Province was 11.4%. This also reminds adults in families with children to pay special attention to Hp testing, actively eradicate infection if found, pay attention to not sharing tableware in daily life, and not chew food before feeding to infants and young children to avoid Hp transmission within the family.

75% of infected adults carry "strong strains"

The survey showed that in Jiangsu Province, the proportion of strong strains of Hp carried by infected adults was 75.6%, and the proportion of strong strains of Hp carried by infected children was 60.5%.

Zhang Zhenyu, director of the Department of Gastroenterology at Nanjing First Hospital, said that the presence of certain specific virulence factors in Helicobacter pylori strains can help it colonize in the human stomach and survive for a long time, and even induce intestinal differentiation and intestinal metaplasia, causing the disease to develop to the irreversible stage of cancer.

It is reported that most people infected with Helicobacter pylori have no symptoms and complications, but almost all of them have chronic active gastritis, also known as Helicobacter pylori gastritis. Among the infected people, about 15%-20% develop peptic ulcers, 5%-10% develop indigestion, and about 1% develop gastric malignant tumors.

These symptoms appear

Helicobacter pylori infection

Many people do not have particularly obvious symptoms after being infected with Helicobacter pylori, but as long as we pay close attention, the body will still give us some clues. -Upper abdominal discomfort, stomach bloating , dull pain, acid reflux, belching, and some infected people will have frequent "early satiety phenomenon".

Bad breath: After being infected with Helicobacter pylori, the bad smell caused by the secretions produced by the bacteria will be emitted through the mouth.

Weight loss and anemia: Due to indigestion, there will be problems with the body's nutritional intake, which will lead to weight loss and even anemia.

Does Helicobacter pylori need to be cured?

How to treat it?

Once infected with Helicobacter pylori, the whole family needs to be screened for Helicobacter pylori and then treated together. If one person is treated, his family may be infected again, so the whole family must act together.
However, testing and radical treatment of Helicobacter pylori are not recommended for children under 14 years old at home.

The cure rate of Helicobacter pylori is 80%-90%, but it will relapse. Generally, the recurrence rate is less than 5% in 5 years, so regular check-ups are required.

Currently, triple therapy and quadruple therapy are mainly recommended for the treatment of Helicobacter pylori, taking three or four drugs at the same time, such as: proton pump inhibitors + antibiotics + bismuth, with a course of treatment of 10-14 days.

During the treatment period, you cannot stop taking the medicine or increase the course of treatment at will, as this may easily lead to sterilization failure or drug resistance. You need to wait for another month before rechecking after stopping the medicine.

Remember not to test for Helicobacter pylori while taking medication, as the results are mostly false negatives.

How to prevent Helicobacter pylori?

Children are susceptible to the disease, so preparing special tableware for children and prohibiting oral feeding is the key to prevention; 2. If a family member is infected with Helicobacter pylori, the infected person should try to use his or her own tableware until he or she is completely cured;

Use serving chopsticks and spoons when dining;

Disinfect tableware regularly, mainly by boiling at high temperature for about half an hour. Also, make sure water is boiled before drinking and meat is cooked before eating.

Eat less irritating food, eat small and frequent meals, don’t smoke, don’t drink alcohol, eat a balanced diet, and chew slowly;

Wash hands before meals and after defecation;

Maintain good oral hygiene, change your toothbrush and clean your teeth regularly.

Planning and production

Source: People's Daily Online

Editor: Bai Li and Wang Mengru