Helicobacter Forums

I was diagnosed in April with h pylori and it was proven to be eradicated through both an endoscopy and urea breath test in June. I've been experiencing heartburn and pain just under my rib on the right side again for a while and it not going away. My dr thinks it might be IBS, not h pylori again. She says id be having more stomach burning.

Should I get retested ? Is it possible to catch it again after 5 months?

there is no harm doing another test to find out. It is possible to catch the bug again, but it's rare. Is anyone in your house positive of H. pylori?

I'm not sure. The dr never told me to tell them to get tested because I asked if it's contagious . Is it?

it is not very contagious. in fact it's rare for adult to catch it. people normally catch it when they are young. Adult normally catch it from their infected partner. but I have to stress that transmission between adult is still very rare. I have seen many couples which only one of them is infected.

So if you catch it when you're young, does that mean it troubles you as an fault when your immune system is low?

a very interesting question. Honestly, the more I know about this organism, the more I dont understand. So current studies suggest that H. pylori actually "tame" your immune system when you are young. current hypothesis suggest that H. pylori trained your immune system when you are young to be non aggressive so you are less likely to be allergic to things like pollen, dust, ash, etc.

Studies also showed that people with stronger immune responses tend to have more severe gastric diseases, like ulcer and cancer. So, my believe, perhaps as you grow into adult hood, your immune system finally found a way to break the H. pylori control and go wild. Hence more problematic.

On the other hand, there are many other Helicobacter species that lives in your intestine. They normally do not cause any trouble. But they becomes troublesome among patients with immune system compromised.

reference
http://jcm.asm.org/content/51/7/2439.full