Background
The prevalence of
Helicobacter pylori
infection was never assessed in Armenia, nor was the prevalence of
H. pylori
resistance against the main antibiotics concerned, despite the fact that these data are fundamental to establish evidence-based recommendations for management of this infection. We aimed to fill this gap by assessing prevalence of
H. pylori
among adult population in Armenia and resistance of
H. pylori
strains to clarithromycin and levofloxacin.
Methods
Helicobacter pylori
seroprevalence was determined in 217 asymptomatic adult subjects submitted to a health checkup using an ELISA. Molecular methods were used to detect
H. pylori
in gastric biopsies from 91 adult dyspeptic patients [55 (60.4%) were positive] as well as the mutations associated with clarithromycin resistance by real-time PCR and with levofloxacin by sequencing the
gyr
A QRDR.
Results
Helicobacter pylori
seropositivity was found to be 41.5% globally and increased with age from 13.6% (age 18–25 years) to 83.3% (age > 65 years). Only two cases were found with a A2142/43G mutation causing clarithromycin resistance, and 6 cases showed mutations associated with levofloxacin resistance.
Conclusions
Helicobacter pylori
infection is estimated to be about 42% among adults in Armenia and the low clarithromycin resistance allows the use of the standard triple therapy as a first line therapy.
Electronic supplementary material
The online version of this article (10.1186/s13099-019-0310-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
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