TREAT HELICOBACTER
Report #7211
A prestigious group of gastroenterologists continue to recommend that people with positive blood tests for helicobacter not be treated with antibiotics unless they have active ulcers. An exciting study from Denmark in the medical journal, Gut, confirms many other studies showing that they are clearly wrong.
More than 90% of stomach and upper intestinal ulcers are caused by a single bacteria called helicobacter. Danish physicians tested blood taken fromn patients in 1982 and 1987. Many of the people who had positive blood tests for helicobacter in 1982 did not have symptoms of an ulcer, such as belching, burping, burning in the stomach, nausea or vomiting. However, when these same patients were checked 5 years later, they often developed ulcer symptoms. This study shows that many people have the helicobacter bacteria in their stomachs for several years before they develop actual symptoms and it may take several more years before they develop an ulcer. So, every one who has a positive blood test for helicobacter and belching and burning in the stomach, nausea or vomiting should be checked to rule out cancer and then be treated with antibiotics. The regimen most often recommended is one week of taking two antibiotics called metronidazole and clarithromycin and an ulcer medication called omeperazole. See report #G123.
By Gabe Mirkin, M.D., for CBS Radio News
1)Conclusions-H pylori infection may precede the development of dyspepsia and is
associated with a variety of gastrointestinal symptoms in people with no history of peptic
ulcer disease. S Rosenstock, L Kay, C Rosenstock, LP Andersen, O Bonnevie, T Jorgensen.
Relation between Helicobacter pylori infection and gastrointestinal symptoms and
syndromes. Gut 41: 2 (AUG 1997):169-176. Address S Rosenstock, Frederiksberg Univ Hosp,
Dept Urol U, Nordre Fasanvej 57, DK-2000 Copenhagen F, Denmark.
Reported 9/11/97; Checked 9/5/05