Testing for H pylori infection

Which patients should be tested for Helicobacter pylori infection?

Peter Malfertheiner: Basically everybody could be tested, because we know that [stomach infection] with Helicobacter pylori is an infectious disease, according to the new guidelines that we have just recently established. But in terms of clinical practice, [we should test] people who come suffering from upper abdominal symptoms – we call it dyspeptic symptoms – [as well as] people who belong to families where there is an increased frequency of gastric cancer, so if there is a familiar risk of gastric cancer. There is also good evidence to test patients who have to undergo long-term treatment with nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs or even aspirin if they had a previous history of symptoms or peptic ulcer disease.

So, to make a sum of all the recommendations that we currently have, we could conclude that an infected stomach should be cured by eradicating this bacteria.