Helicobacter Forums

Hello,
I came down with symptoms in June of this year although I'm fairly certain that I have had h. pylori for a few years.

The first round of meds- Clarithromycin, omeprazole, amoxicillin- tested positive a month later

Second round- tetracycline, bismuth, metronidazole, omeprazole- six days into treatment I had an allergic reaction to the tetracycline (morbilliform rash) discontinued treatment. Tested positive once again a month later.

Third round just now- rifabutin, amoxicillin, omeprazole- 9 days into treatment came down with flu-like symptoms and fever and had to go to the hospital (during covid ). Diagnosed with drug-induced neutropenia, and thrombocytopenia. Obviously discontinued treatment. This was 2 days ago.

I have an appointment on Tues to repeat the CBC and hope that the thrombocytopenia and neutropenia are resolving.
I am fairly certain I still have h. pylori because all of my symptoms are still there.
I am feeling really afraid that nothing will work on this bacteria in my body. I am in my last year of nursing school. Had to take this last semester off due to h. pylori and need to go back in January or all of the work that I have put in thus far will be lost and nursing school will be over for me. I am a single mother of 2 young kids and I need to be cured of this once and for all. I am however afraid of the side effects of introducing cipro or levofloxacin given my track record of drug reactions thus far (if I can get it here in the US). Helico expert or anyone else who might be able to help me what are your thoughts? Feeling really desperate. I am losing faith over here. Please help.

That's unfortunate side effects.

But you should get a test done to find out if you still have H. pylori. We have encounter one case, where the patient only taken 1 day of antibiotics treatment, developed allergies and stopped. To everyone's surprise, he was then found negative of H. pylori later on.

From your treatment history, you still have ciprofloxacin and furazolidone option.
in your next treatment, make sure your doctor give you enough dose of PPI, eg. rabeprazole 20mg TID.

or if your doctor has access to the new PPI, vonoprazane, can try the dual therapy with this new PPI too.

lastly, although the symptoms are because of the presence of H. pylori, it is not directly from H. pylori. The symptoms are primarily from the inflammation from your own immune system. When H. pylori is gone, it'll take time for the inflammation to subside.

Vonoprazan does look very promising, however, it is not available here in the US where I live. Levofloxacin is also not available either. What would be my possible treatment options at this point?

Furazolidone is also not available in US.

what about moxifloxacin? you can check with your doctor about antibiotics in the same class - quinolones.

You can have either PBAC
rabeprazole 20mg TID
bismuth 240mg QID
Amoxicillin 1g TID
Ciprofloxacin (or any other quinolones)

or PBTC
rabeprazole 20mg TID
bismuth 240mg QID
Tetracycline 500mg QID
Ciprofloxacin (or any other quinolones)

Hi Helico Expert

Does taking the antibiotics soon after having milk with oats for breakfast affect the effectiveness of the antibiotics?

we have no restriction on diet when prescribing the antibiotics.
because we rely on the antibiotics to be absorbed and transported in the blood.