Helicobacter pylori: The Story

People actually thought that stress or spicy foods were what caused ulcer, it was not until 1982, when a pathologist, Dr. Robin Warren from Australia observed curved bacteria in most of the patients that suffered ulcer...

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...he had a colleague by name Barry Marshall, who was so interested and caught up by this finding. They carried out a study on biopsies(examination of tissues or liquids from a living person to determine the cause of a disease) from about 100 patients.

Marshal was able to cultivate this new bacteria that was previously not known to man, this new bacteria would come to be referred to as “Helicobacter pylori”.

They observed that this bacteria was present in 90% of the patients that had ulcer and so was implicated in patients with gastric inflammation, duodenal ulcer or gastric ulcer.
Based on the positive results they got, they proposed that this organism

“Helicobacter pylori”, was in fact responsible for ulcer but the world didn’t believe any of what they said, it took Marshall infecting himself with the bacterium, developing and establishing his own stomach illness and treating himself to provide a more conclusive evidence...

...to the world in 1985, that “Helicobacter pylori” was the causative of stomach ulcer.

Other scientists also worked on it and results came out the same, it was then that the world believed that H. pylori was responsible for 80-90% of all the ulcer cases, the other 10-20% of ulcer cases was caused by long term use of NSAIDs like Aspirin,diclofenac, ibuprofen.

H. pylori bacteria weaken the protective mucous coating of the stomach when they attach themselves to it, thereby creating room for gastric acid to get through to the sensitive lining beneath.

Now, the bacteria and gastric acid work hand in hand to cause sore or what we call “ulcer” to form.

In 2005, Marshall and Robin Warren were awarded a noble prize in medicine by the Karolinska institute in Stockholm for their discovery of the bacterium, “Helicobacter pylori” and its role in gastritis and peptic ulcer disease.

It is important to find out the cause of ulcer before treating it and treatment approach differs. Certain test can be carried out to determine this, like blood tests can be performed to check for antibodies against this particular bacteria.

If the bacteria is involved then the treatment is different, Omeprazole and an antibiotic is given to treat this and in most cases patients recover fully especially when the heed advices.

If the bacterium is not implicated then another approach is carried out, the NSAID which is used for pain and inflammation may be changed or another drug to protect to stomach lining may be prescribed too, to reduce the stomach activity and protect it.

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This is the picture of Barry Marshall, the one man that infected himself with H. pylori, developed the symptoms and treated himself to establish to the world, that the bacterium was responsible for ulcer.

Respect sir.

This is Robin Warren, the man that started it all.