Gut 1998;43(Suppl 1):S6-S9 ( July )

Helicobacter pylori: the size of the problem

J Parsonnet

HRP Building, Room T225, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305-5405, USA

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

	Introduction

My task is to describe the magnitude of the problem Helicobacter pylori poses worldwide. This is a daunting assignment for, while it would be relatively simple to summarise the prevalence of H pylori, to characterise those at risk for infection, and to delineate incidence trends, it is far more difficult to quantify the actual disease that H pylori causes. Certainly, H pylori is an extraordinarily common infection. Its mere commonness, however, is not in itself a problem. Rather, it is the propensity H pylori has for causing illness that determines its public health significance. Unfortunately, for several reasons, the total extent of disease worldwide is far more difficult to quantify than the amount of infection. Firstly, H pylori related diseases (for example, ulcer disease) are often treated empirically without resorting to diagnostic testing. There are, therefore, very incomplete data on the incidence and corresponding morbidity for these processes. Secondly, because . . . [Full text of this article]

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