The prevalence of Helicobacter pylori in practising dental staff and dental students

Abstract

Recent studies suggest Helicobacter pylori i s spread by faecal-oral or oral-oral transmission. Gastroenterologists who are exposed to gastric secretions and saliva have a high prevalence of H. pylori infection. Venous blood was obtained from 92 dentists, 40 dental nurses, 33 fifth year and 30 first year dental students. An ELISA assay was used to detect H. pylori IgG antibodies. Results were compared with an age and sex matched normal population. The prevalence of H. pylori infection in dentists, dental nurses, fifth year dental students and first year dental students were 23 per cent, 18 per cent, 18 per cent and 16 per cent, respectively. There were no significant differences when compared with the normal population controls. The prevalence of H. pylori antibody was not significantly increased with years of practice or patient contact time in dentists and dental nurses. Helicobacter pylori infection is uncommon in dental professionals working in the oral cavity.

Seropositividad a Helicobacter pylori entre estudiantes universitarios y sus familias: Estudio comparativo

“…En estudiantes universitarios de países desarrollados se han reportado resultados contradictorios en la prevalencia de H. pylori, dando cifras mucho mayores (21,30) o por el contrario muy bajas (20,(31)(32)(33)(34) berse al tipo de población estudiada, ya que respecto a estudiantes del área de la salud existen datos muy similares, comunicando prevalencias de 25 hasta 38,6% (19,35,36). La elevada prevalencia mundial de infección por H. pylori, aunado a la insuficiente evidencia de sus rutas de contaminación, han dado lugar al estudio de diversos grupos sociales y de sus núcleos familiares ante la posibilidad de que esta sea la fuente de infección principal, adjudicando por lo tanto, al contacto estrecho entre sus miembros como una posible vía de contaminación; esto se ha hecho patente en algunos estudios realizados en niños y sus familias donde se ha encontrado esta asociación desde el punto de vista epidemiológico y molecular (4,10,16).…”

Helicobacter pylori infection in hospital workers over a 5-year period: correlation with demographic and clinical parameters

“…[11][12][13][14][15][16] Nevertheless, an equally large number of studies did not find higher infection rates in medical staff and persons working at endoscopy units, compared with normal controls. [17][18][19][20][21][22][23] Our results showed that an increase in the risk of H. pylori infection among nurses certainly exists. This conclusion can be derived from the higher rate of infection observed in nursing staff compared with administrative and technical staff on multivariate analysis, although univariate analysis did not show any significant differences.…”

“…Indeed, increased seroprevalence of H. pylori in nursing staff and gastroenterologists has been reported in some studies, [11][12][13][14][15][16] although an equally large number of studies did not show any significant correlation between occupation and H. pylori infection. [17][18][19][20][21][22][23] All studies performed so far simply reflect the situation at the time of examination, which is a comparison of the prevalence of infection with H. pylori among medical and nursing staff and of the general population at a given time. So far, there has been no study comparing the rate of infection by H. pylori in the same cohort of hospital workers over a certain period of time.…”

Transmission of Helicobacter pylori

“…A study in beagles showed transmission of H pylori and similar bacteria from infected to uninfected puppies and it was noted that these animals had a tendency to lick one another extensively; by contrast, rats and mice, who are coprophagic but have little oral–oral contact, did not transmit bacteria of this type 48. Other evidence has, however, failed to support the predominance of the oral–oral route, for example, the lack of increased risk of infection found in dentists,49 50 and those with higher numbers of sexual partners 51…”