Current Therapy forHelicobacter pyloriInfection in Children and Adolescents

Abstract

Helicobacter pyloriinfects approximately 50% of the world’s population and is a definitive cause of gastroduodenal disease (ie, gastritis, duodenal and gastric ulcers) in children and adults. Four consensus conferences held around the globe have brought together clinicians, scientists, epidemiologists and health care economists to discuss the role of the gastric pathogenH pyloriin human gastroduodenal disease. At each of these conferences, the overriding objective was to reach a consensus on the development of practical guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment ofH pylori-infected individuals. However, it was not until the CanadianH pyloriConsensus Conference, held in November 1997, that the issues ofH pyloriinfection in children were addressed. Therapies forH pyloriinfection in children, presented in part at the First Canadian PaediatricH pyloriConsensus Conference, held in Victoria, British Columbia, November 1998, are reviewed in this paper.

Current controversies associated with Helicobacter Pylori infection in the pediatric population

“…Such studies, however, have relied on indirect assays of H. pylori infection, which may be inaccurate diagnostic tools in young children. Monotherapy antibiotic regimens -used with great frequency in children to treat episodes of acute otitis media and pharyngitis -are not effective in eradicating H. pylori from the surface mucous layer overlying epithelial cells in the antrum of the stomach (13). The environmental reservoir of infection is not known, although some studies report that contaminated drinking water may be a potential vehicle of transmission of infection.…”