A cancer-causing stomach bacteria is infecting fewer people in China – but that could change
- Researchers had thought Helicobacter pylori was present in about half the country’s population but a new study cites a much lower rate
- Team also finds worrying levels of resistance to antibiotics used to treat the infections
A cancer-causing group of bacteria is much less prevalent in China’s urban population than previously thought, according to a study published in The Lancet Microbe journal this month.
Researchers had thought that around half the people in China were infected with the bacteria but a study led by Gu Bing of Guangdong Provincial People’s Hospital, put the infection rate at just over 27 per cent.
The team based their assessment on data collected from 26 provinces from March to November last year.
In an interview with mainland news outlet Yicai on March 10, Gu said the lower prevalence could be the result of many factors, including improvements in living standards, healthier lifestyles and public health education.
Just last year, a group of scientists, mainly from the Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine at the University of Hong Kong, suggested that about half of China’s population was infected with the bacteria.
That rate was the highest in the world, the researchers said in a paper published in the peer-reviewed The Lancet Gastroenterology & Hepatology journal.
The team looked at 224 studies from 71 countries or regions and estimated that the global prevalence of H. pylori infection had fallen from 58 per cent to 43 per cent over the past four decades.
A study published in 2022 by Chinese researchers estimated the prevalence at 44.2 per cent in mainland China.
People who are younger, or living in high-income countries or countries with better healthcare, are less likely to be infected with H. pylori.
Hong Kong study identifies certain bacteria as risk factor for stomach cancer
However, Gu and his collaborators also found that resistance to clarithromycin and levofloxacin – two commonly used antibiotics in the treatment of H. pylori – in the Chinese urban population was around 50 per cent.
Gu said the resistance rate for clarithromycin in China was in line with the Asia-Pacific region, but much higher than in Europe, while the resistance rate for levofloxacin was much higher than in Europe and the Asia-Pacific region as a whole, “which is of particular concern”.
Medical experts warn that the unscientific use of antibiotics can lead to a range of side effects.
In an article published on social media last year, Yan Xuemin, a gastroenterologist at Peking Union Medical College Hospital in Beijing, and her colleague said misuse or irregular use of antibiotics could help create drug-resistant bacteria, making it harder to eradicate H. pylori, and could disturb intestinal bacterial flora.
