| dc.description.abstract | Helicobacter pylori is believed to be responsible for the majority of peptic ulcers in patients with chronic gastritis and active ulcer disease (Dua & El-Omar, 2012). More than 50% of the world’s population have H. pylori in their upper gastrointestinal tract and infection is more common in developing countries. A cross sectional study to determine the prevalence of H. pylori among patients with gastrointestinal complaints attending Out Patient Department was carried out in 2023 at Itojo General Hospital. A total of 282 patients with gastrointestinal complaints were recruited for the study. Consent was sought to participate in the study and then approximately 4ml of blood samples were collected into red top vacutainers from each one of them. The samples were transported to the main laboratory in a rack fitted into a cooler box with ice packs. These were then allowed to clot and centrifuged at 1000 rpm for 5 minutes. Serum was obtained and used in H. pylori test using H. pylori strips (H.pylori 1-step) (Chem-labs Healthcare Ltd). Results were read after 10 minutes of incubation at room temperature and interpreted following the manufacturer’s instructions where appearance of two distinct colored lines was interpreted as positive and one line appearing on the control region was interpreted as negative.
Of the two hundred eighty two (282) patients, 110 (39.0%) were males and 172 (61.0%) were females with gastrointestinal complaints attending Out Patient Department at Itojo General Hospital. Fifty seven participants (20.2%) tested positive to H. pylori. Out of the 57 participants with H. pylori infection, 6 were aged between 18-20, 13 were aged between 21-30, 13 were aged between 31-40 whereas 12 were aged between 41-59 and 13 were 60 and above years old. Of the 57 participants with H. pylori infection, 13 were male while 44 were female. Sero-prevalence of H. pylori infection among the studied patients with gastrointestinal complaints attending OPD at Itojo General Hospital was 20.2% with more females (77.2%) suffering from the infection compared to the males (22.8%). The risk factors to H. pylori infection that were significant at p≤0.005 were frequent consumption of NSAIDs and collection of water for domestic use from shallow wells. | en_US |
