Cheol-Woo Park, Director of the Department of Gastroenterology at On General Hospital in Busan (specialist in gastroenterology). Photo courtesy of On General Hospital
Helicobacter pylori, a class 1 carcinogen designated by WHO
It is estimated that 50% of the Korean population is infected.
Do not miss medication during treatment
You may have heard the word ‘Helicobacter pylori’ at least once through a TV commercial. Many people think that ‘Helicobacter pylori’, which appears in advertisements for lactobacillus beverages, is a good bacterium for our body, but this bacterium is classified as a first-class carcinogen as a cause of gastric cancer designated by the World Health Organization.
‘Helicobacter pylori’, also called ‘stomach bacterium’, is a microaerophilic bacterium with a spiral shape. It mainly reproduces in the gastric and duodenal mucosa of humans and causes chronic gastric inflammation, gastric ulcer, and duodenal ulcer.
It is known as a causative bacteria that can even cause gastric cancer, and you can find out if there is a bacteria through a gastroscope, and if infected, it stays in the stomach for life.
It is estimated that about 50% of the population in Korea is infected with this bacterium. Unlike Western countries, where Helicobacter pylori is actively eliminated through drug treatment, in Korea, people often leave it alone if there are no symptoms.
However, there are cases in which gastric cancer, gastric and duodenal ulcers, chronic gastritis, gastric lymphoma, functional dyspepsia, etc. are caused, so there are many opinions that Helicobacter pylori eradication treatment should be more aggressive.
Park Cheol-woo, head of the Department of Gastroenterology at On General Hospital in Busan (specialist in gastroenterology), said, “Just because one member of the family is infected with Helicobacter pylori does not mean that the entire family needs to be treated right away.” If a bacteria test is performed and bacteria are found, eradication treatment must be performed,” he explained.
For the treatment of Helicobacter pylori, there is a standard three-drug regimen in which drugs, including antibiotics, are taken for two weeks. However, in recent years, as the drug resistance rate in Korea has increased, sequential treatment and simultaneous treatment, in which four types of drugs are taken for 10 days, are also being used.
One thing to be careful of when taking antibacterial treatment is to take the medicine without skipping it. After stopping taking the medicine, a urea breath test should be performed 1 month later to see if the bacteria are gone. This is because Helicobacter pylori, which is resistant to first-line drugs, is gradually increasing, so it is necessary to confirm that the bacteria have been eradicated. If the first eradication fails, change the drug and perform the second eradication treatment.
The route of infection of Helicobacter pylori has not yet been clearly identified, but the main routes of infection are mouth-to-mouth (the caregiver transfers chewed food into the baby’s mouth to the baby), anus-to-mouth (cooking or eating food without washing hands after defecating) ) is assumed to be the path of
One or two light touches, such as ‘passing a glass’, which many people know as the cause of infection, rarely cause infection, but the importance of personal hygiene should not be overlooked.
Manager Park said, “Patients are having a hard time taking medicine to treat Helicobacter pylori eradication. However, if treatment is given up midway, resistance to the drug may develop and various diseases including gastric cancer may occur in the future,” he emphasized. .
Meanwhile, after complete eradication of Helicobacter pylori, the rate of re-infection is known to be relatively low, but re-infection may occur depending on the sanitary environment. Therefore, it is necessary to pay attention to the usual personal hygiene environment, and follow-up examinations are necessary if re-infection with Helicobacter pylori is suspected.
Sports Donga (Busan) | Reporter Taehyun Kim localbuk@donga.com See more articles by reporter
