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Factors associated with disappearance of Helicobacter pylori in the West

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Book cover Helicobacter pylori

Abstract

Helicobacter pylori is an extraordinarily common pathogen that has coexisted with humans since prehistoric times1. Yet the organism’s ascendancy in the human stomach may soon be at an end. Increasing evidence from industrialized Western nations indicates that human H. pylori infection is disappearing at a dramatic rate. In longitudinal studies from the US, Europe and Japan, H. pylori prevalence has demonstrated precipitous drops, at rates exceeding 25% per decade2–7. These decreases appear to have been more precipitous in children than in adults. Anecdotally, many paediatric gastroenterologists claim H. pylori to be a rarity among their patients. At our own hospitals at Stanford, H. pylori infection is harder and harder to find. In parallel with this drop in H. pylori infection are corresponding decreases in gastric cancer and in duodenal ulcer disease.

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Authors
  1. J. Parsonnet
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Gastroenterology, McMaster University Medical Centre, 1200 Main Street West, Hamilton, Ontario, L8N 3Z5, Canada

    Richard H. Hunt (Professor of Medicine Director) (Professor of Medicine Director)

  2. Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Academic Medical Centre, 9 Meibergdreef, 1105 AZ, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Guido N. J. Tytgat (Professor) (Professor)

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© 2000 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

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Parsonnet, J. (2000). Factors associated with disappearance of Helicobacter pylori in the West. In: Hunt, R.H., Tytgat, G.N.J. (eds) Helicobacter pylori. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-3927-4_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-3927-4_6

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-94-010-5753-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-011-3927-4

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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