A very high percentage of patients were infected with metronidazole and clarithromycin resistant strains. The use of antibiotics for other indications seems to be the major risk factor for the development of primary resistance. High incidence should alarm the gastroenterologist while prescribing the eradication regimen.

Context: Validation of an accurate and less cumbersome noninvasive method to detect current Helicobacter pylori infection is a requisite for any laboratory.

Objectives:To investigate the prevalence of intestinal parasitic infection with special emphasis to opportunistic parasites in pediatric age group. history along with details of sociodemographic factors, literacy level, and hygiene habits were obtained. Saline and iodine mount and modified Ziehl-Neelsen stained preparation were examined microscopically.Result: Of 180 patients enrolled in the study, 99 (55%) were males and 81 (45%) were females. In this study, prevalence of intestinal parasites was 13.3%; among these, 3.33% were Entamoeba histolytica, 5% were Giardia lamblia, 3.33% Cryptosporidium parvum, 1.11% Ascaris lumbricoides, and 0.55% Ancylostoma duodenale. Highest number of parasitic infections was seen in the age group of 6-10 years and opportunistic parasites were more prevalent in the age group of <1 year. Majority of patients having parasitic infection were illiterate, living in kutcha house, having open source of drinking water, and having unhygienic sanitary habits. Conclusion:The study indicates that parasitic infections are still major public health problems in tropical countries such as India. These infections were found to be due to low standards of housing, faulty technique of hand washing, nonusage of sanitary latrine, and illiteracy. As found in this study, higher rate of parasitic infection in school-going children requires hygiene education to students and parents. The study reaffirms and confirms the previously held view that opportunistic parasites can cause diarrhea in pediatric patients. All children found to have opportunistic parasites must be screened for HIV infection and other causes of immunodeficiency.

No abstract

Introduction: Virulent markers of H. pylori, the vacuolating cytotoxin (vacA), cytotoxin-associated gene A (cagA), induced by contact with epithelium factor antigen (iceA gene) and the urease C gene (ureC) may plays a major role in determining the clinical outcome of Helicobacter infections. Aim:To detect the prevalence of the cagA, vacA, ureC and iceA genotypes of H. pylori from antral biopsy specimens of patients and to associate its role in specific disease. Materials and Methods:The study was conducted at Department of Microbiology of Shree P.M. Patel College of Paramedical Sciences, Anand, Gujarat, India. Seventy one antral biopsies of symptomatic patients referred for endoscopy from October 2012 to September 2013 were subjected to Multiplex PCR. DNA isolation from 71 biopsy samples was done by using "QIAamp DNA mini kit" from QIAGEN (GmbH, Hilden, Germany). Data was analysed using Chi square (χ 2 ) test and p-value<0.05 was considered significant. Results:Out of the 71 biopsies screened, 22(31%) samples were positive for H. pylori by PCR, with high proportion of cagA positive (17/22 specimen; 77.27%), followed by ureC positive (4/22 specimen; 18.18%) and vacA positive (1/22 specimen; 4.54%) strains. Significant association was found between cagA and female gender (p-value=0.042). Out of 17 cagA positive strains, 9(52.94%) were found in patients with gastritis, 5(29.41%) in reflux oesophagitis and 3(17.64%) in patients with diodenal ulcer. We found 0% prevalence of iceA gene; conversely we had three peptic ulcer patients with only cagA positivity. Conclusion:The cagA positive strain mainly affects the patients with gastritis specifically of female gender and iceA genotype is not a useful marker associated with peptic ulcer disease. Patients should be screened for cagA genotype when reported to be a case of gastritis for early treatment to prevent further complications such as cancer.