Abstract
Epidemiological data suggests that ethnic groupsusing chopsticks for eating have a higher prevalence ofH. pylori infection. This study investigated thecarriage of H. pylori in chopsticks after eating. Used chopsticks and saliva were collected fromasymptomatic individuals whose H. pylori status wasdetermined by [13C]urea breath test andserology. Both the saliva specimens and chopsticks werecultured and processed by polymerase chain reaction(PCR) for the detection of H. pylori . Furthermore,chopsticks used by hospital staff in the cafeteria werepooled for the detection of H. pylori by bacteriologic culture and PCR. Sixty-nine volunteers wererecruited in the first study and 45 (65%) were diagnosedto have H. pylori infection. While all cultures werenegative, H. pylori was detected by PCR in the saliva from 15 (33%) infected subjects and in thechopsticks from one (2%). Among the 12 sets of pooledchopstick-washing studied, H. pylori was detected by PCRin two sets. This study showed that H. pylori was rarely detected in chopsticks after eating andhence, the risk of contracting this infection via theuse of chopsticks is low.
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Leung, WK., Sung, J.J.Y., Ling, T.K.W. et al. Use of Chopsticks for Eating and Helicobacter pylori Infection. Dig Dis Sci 44, 1173–1176 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1026632408804
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1026632408804