H. pylori in Nigeria: the infection behind most stomach ulcers

If you have had a gnawing pain in the upper stomach that eases when you eat and returns a couple of hours later, there is a good chance a small bacterium is behind it. It is called Helicobacter pylori, and in Nigeria a large proportion of adults carry it.

The good news is that once it is found, it is curable. The bad news is how many people spend years managing the pain with antacids instead of finding the cause.

What it is and how you get it

H. pylori is a bacterium that lives in the lining of the stomach. Most people acquire it in childhood, through food, water or close contact, and it can sit there quietly for decades. Many carriers never have a problem at all. But in some people it inflames the stomach lining and wears away its protective layer, and that is where the trouble starts.

How it causes ulcers

Your stomach produces acid to digest food, and protects itself from that acid with a layer of mucus. H. pylori damages that protection. Acid then reaches the raw lining beneath and burns a small crater into it. That crater is an ulcer, and it is what produces the pain.

The same process is behind most of the ulcers we see, along with long-term use of certain painkillers, which damage the lining in a different way.

The symptoms people ignore

The classic sign is a burning or gnawing pain in the upper middle of the stomach, often worse when hungry and briefly eased by food or milk. There may also be:

• Bloating and frequent belching
• Feeling full after only a small amount of food
• Nausea, or loss of appetite
• Unintended weight loss

People carry these for months, self-medicating with over-the-counter antacids that dull the pain without touching the cause. The real danger is that an untreated ulcer can bleed, which shows up as black stool or vomiting blood, and that needs urgent attention.

How we test for it

There are breath tests and stool tests for the bacterium, and your doctor may reasonably start with one of those. The most direct route is a gastroscopy, a short look at the stomach with a slim camera passed through the mouth.

The advantage of a gastroscopy is that it answers several questions at once. We can see the ulcer itself, take a tiny sample to test for H. pylori, and rule out the small number of cases where an ulcer conceals something more serious. It takes minutes under sedation and settles what months of antacids never will.

The treatment, and why finishing it matters

Clearing H. pylori takes a specific combination, usually two antibiotics together with a medicine that lowers stomach acid, taken for one to two weeks. It works well, but only if you take the complete course exactly as prescribed.

Stopping early because you feel better is the most common reason treatment fails and the bacterium returns, sometimes harder to clear the second time. After treatment, a follow-up test confirms it has genuinely gone.

When to take it seriously

Come in sooner rather than later if you have stomach pain along with any of these:

• Black, tarry stool, or vomiting blood, which need seeing today
• Difficulty swallowing
• Losing weight without trying
• Persistent vomiting
• You are over 45 with new, ongoing symptoms

The takeaway

Stomach pain that keeps coming back is not something to manage forever with antacids. It usually has a cause, that cause is very often H. pylori or an ulcer, and it is among the most treatable things we deal with.

If this sounds like you, a gastroscopy is a short procedure that turns a long-running problem into a finished one. Call 070 7056 6272 to arrange it.