H pylori: Antibiotic resistance vs population screening

Should the risk of developing antibiotic resistance prevent us from population screening for Helicobacter pylori?

Paul Moayyedi: This would be the issue in low-risk countries. I think the concern of antibiotic resistance—when in China up to 1 in 18 people die of gastric cancer—I think the concern of antibiotic resistance is not such a big issue, given the public health problem certain countries have with gastric cancer. The concern around issues such as possible antibiotic resistance, overuse of antibiotics is less of an issue where there is clear benefit to eradicating the infection, but [in the case of] screening of populations in the west, the risks and benefits are less clear.