Population-based strategies for Helicobacter pylori-associated disease management: a Japanese perspective

Abstract

The prevalence of Helicobacter pylori infection is decreasing gradually in Japan mainly owing to an improvement in sanitary conditions. The guidelines for H. pylori management by the Japanese Society for Helicobacter Research, initially established in 2000 and revised in 2003, were revised dramatically in January 2009. The new guidelines accepted the use of new drugs and recommended trying the second-line eradication regimen. Moreover, the revised guidelines reflected the recent knowledge in Japan that metachronous gastric cancer prevalance is decreased significantly by the eradication of H. pylori infection. The Japanese Society for Helicobacter Research proposed that the cure of H. pylori infection should be presupposed to prevent gastric cancer from active gastritis universally developed in the infected subjects. Overall, the most important and dramatic revision is that all infected people are recommended to receive eradication therapy irrespective of the clinical outcomes in the Japanese population.

Keywords::

• guideline
• Helicobacter pylori
• management
• resistance
• treatment

Financial & competing interests disclosure

The project described was supported by NIH grant DK 62813. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.