Intimate Contact Not
Likely to Spread Ulcer Bug

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - People cured of stomach ulcers can cozy up to their significant others without fear, according to a new study, which found that the ulcer-causing bacterium Helicobacter pylori is unlikely to be transmitted between married couples.

What's more, the investigation found that chances of a repeat bout of H. pylori infection appear to be relatively slim.

H. pylori bacteria are commonly found in the human body and usually cause no harm. But experts believe that the bug contributes to a majority of stomach ulcers--although why this happens in only some people is unknown. Also unclear is exactly how H. pylori spreads among people. One belief is that the bacteria are passed on through water and food contaminated with fecal matter.

Another possibility is that H. pylori spreads through intimate person-to-person contact, such as that between married couples.

But when lead author Javier P. Gisbert of the Universidad Autonoma de Madrid in Spain and colleagues looked at a group of people who were treated and free from ulcers and their spouses, they found no evidence that those reinfected contracted the bug from their husband or wife.

In the study, the team of researchers followed 120 men and women who were diagnosed and treated for duodenal ulcers and H. pylori infection. After the patients were free of the bug, they were monitored for one year.

Eight people were reinfected with H. pylori, for a yearly recurrence rate of about 7%, the researchers report in the September issue of the European Journal of Gastroenterology and Hepatology.

However, DNA tests of the H. pylori organisms in the reinfected patients and their spouses showed that, even though the spouse was also H. pylori-positive, the bugs were not of the same strain.

And 76% of spouses of patients who did not become reinfected were found to harbor H. pylori, the report indicates.

"The conclusion of this study is that recurrence of H. pylori infection seems to be relatively infrequent if appropriate therapies are used, even in an environment with a high prevalence of H. pylori infection, and even if the spouse is H. pylori-positive," the authors write.

The study also suggests, according to the researchers, that the partners of people with ulcers do not also need to be treated with antibiotics to prevent reinfection.

SOURCE: European Journal of Gastroenterology and Hepatology 2002;14:865-871.

Reference Source 89

For more information on how to prevent other diseases, use
PreventDisease.com's "Quick Prevention Resources".