New cure for stomach ulcers set to slash drugs bill

A NEW cure for stomach ulcers discovered by researchers at the Chinese University is set to drastically reduce Hong Kong's drugs bill and help change traditional medical thinking.

Researchers from the university's medical faculty found that stomach ulcers, which affect about 150,000 people in the territory, can be cured more effectively in the long-term with antibiotics than more expensive anti-acid drugs.

The findings are similar to a previous breakthrough study carried out by the university into the treatment of duodenal ulcers. They further support the idea that a bacterial infection, rather than gastric acid, is responsible for many ulcers.

Professor Arthur Li Kwok-cheung, dean of medicine at the Chinese University, said: 'This means that we can treat these ulcers just as effectively with antibiotics as with anti-acid drugs, which are far more expensive.

'The only additional benefit of anti-acid treatment is in pain relief but we can just as easily use a much cheaper pain-reliever to do this job.' For the past 70 years, the treatment of ulcers has relied on cutting the level of acid in the stomach, although the ulcer often reappears after healing.

Anti-acid drugs are about a third more expensive than antibiotic therapy.

The cheaper but as effective treatment for ulcers has already been put into practice at the Prince of Wales Hospital, the teaching hospital for the Chinese University.