Helicobacter (=Campylobacter) pylori in Africa

Abstract

Epigastric pain is a common complaint throughout Africa, mostly in the form of non-ulcer dyspepsia. It has recently been suggested that Helicobacter (= Campylobacter) pylori, a bacterium that colonizes the gastric mucosa and causes type B gastritis, may be the cause of this epigastric pain. This paper reports the endoscopic, histological and bacteriological findings in 57 patients presenting with epigastric pain to the University of Maiduguri teaching hospital during one year, together with a review of the African literature. Of 57 patients, 49 had non-ulcer dyspepsia, 7 peptic ulceration and 1 carcinoma of the stomach. 93% of the patients had histological gastritis, and of these 87% were colonized with H. pylori. The bacterium was cultured from 13 patients. This high prevalence of gastritis and H. pylori has been found throughout Africa. The figures support a causative role for H. pylori in histological gastritis. At present the evidence in support of a causative role in non-ulcer dyspepsia is not strong enough to be able to recommend the routine use of anti-H. pylori therapy in patients with epigastric pain.

Use of a urea breath test versus invasive methods to determine the prevalence ofHelicobacter pylori in zaire

“…Data from our study have confirmed the high prevalence of Helicobacter pylori in developing countries and its occurrence very early in life (7,27,28 Helicobacter pylori, suggested that waterborne spread of the infection through the contaminated municipal water supply might also be an important source of infection in developing countries (30).…”

High amoxycillin resistance in Helicobacter pylori isolated from gastritis and peptic ulcer patients in western Nigeria

“…There have been few documented cases of H. pylori from the north of the country and the majority of biopsy samples were not cultured, 2,3 although our study (from the western region) has documented work on the CLO test, culture, and gram staining. 4 In northern Nigeria, Holcombe et al 2,3 reported the prevalence of H. pylori by histology to be 87%, with culture (62% and 72.7% respectively) being positive for H. pylori. From our culture study of H. pylori, 27% of patients with gastritis and peptic ulcer in western Nigeria were positive.…”

Évaluation d’un nouveau test sérologique (Pylorix®) dans une zone de haute prévalence de l’infection à Helicobacter pylori

“…Les performances affichées du Pylorix ® étaient les suivantes : une sensibilité de 95%, une spécificité de 89,2% et une précision diagnostique de 90,7% (8).…”