What is H. pylori?

  Helicobacter pylori, which is often referred to as HP, is one of the most common bacterial infections, with about half of the population in China currently infected. HP infection can cause chronic gastritis, peptic ulcers, and even gastric cancer. We should have a comprehensive understanding of HP, neither should we panic and increase the burden of thought when we hear that HP will eventually cause “gastric cancer”, nor should we relax our vigilance and neglect treatment because we do not feel any symptoms.  How should we treat H. pylori correctly and standardize treatment?  (1) HP is mainly transmitted through the “mouth-to-mouth” and “fecal-to-mouth” channels, so it is necessary to develop good hygienic habits, such as eating out, try to bring their own utensils; home utensils to implement “exclusive use “At the same time, disinfection should be carried out frequently; we should pay attention to hand washing before and after meals; we should pay attention to oral hygiene and use toothbrushes and toothpans separately. These are not only important factors to ensure the eradication of HP, but also important measures to prevent re-infection after HP eradication.  (2) If you feel sick in the stomach or your friends and relatives who often eat together have HP detected, it is recommended to go to the hospital for testing to determine whether you have HP infection, the simplest, quickest and most accurate method is the breath test, just take a special pill and then blow as required to detect it, every Monday to Saturday morning, during normal working hours, you can come to our hospital for examination on an empty stomach.  (3) If HP infection is detected, do not panic and do not go to believe in prescriptions. Gastroenterologists will develop a standardized treatment plan. At present, domestic experts recommend a proton pump inhibitor (PPI)-based bismuth quadruple combination, commonly two different antibiotics combined with bismuth and a PPI, when using the medication, you need to pay attention to the time of taking the medication on time before and after meals, the course of treatment is usually 10 days or 14 days, insist on taking it continuously, and do not stop it casually in the middle of the course. At the same time, we should pay attention to avoid factors that affect the treatment effect, such as smoking and drinking alcohol, etc., generally can achieve a good eradication effect. At the end of the course of treatment, one month after stopping the medication, you can go to the hospital to review whether the eradication of HP is successful. If the treatment fails this time, it is not scary. Our gastroenterology department will analyze the reasons for the failure of previous eradication and develop an individualized treatment plan to improve the success rate of HP remedial treatment.