Helicobacter Forums

I will try my best to keep it short until you need full description, so you guys don't get bored.

18 months ago, i cried out with upper left stomach pain after 10 days to one unprotected vaginal exposure to CSW. Then fear of HIV came into my world. So ended up testing for 15 months of HIV and STD result came out negative. then one day held my breath and went through Ultra sound 3 times, it was found negative all the time then did endoscopy. Endoscopy showed "Erythema" and biopsy showed inflammation only but nothing else. Google says Erythema is a name of Gastritis. Read on internet Gastritis could happen because of HIV then again ended up testing for HIV for next 3 months. Results were negative. Life became miserable for me and spent these 18 months with upper left stomach pain and on/off diarrhea, sore throat and ear canal swelling. spent these months in tense, stress and anxiety took me over. and i get panic attacks to my head sides and ear. 5 doctors have cleared me up for STDs and says its not related to HIV or STD.

Anyway then i met a great lady on forum, who ensured me its not HIV but Erythema could happen because of many other things. she turned my attention to other possibilities So she ran through various series of test on me, All stool test, liver, pancreas and other blood test.

One day we came through H.Pylori blood test, it was found positive then she recommend breath test to confirm again it was found positive with very high value.
I don't know what is the best treatment for it doctor prescribed Omeprazole, amoxicillin 500mg and Clarithromicin 500mg Twice daily for 14 days. is it enough to eradicate the H.Pylori.

1) Does H.Pylori transmit sexually, did i get it from CSW?
2) last year i got married to my girlfriend and now wife has on/off diarrhea for 1 year, did i infect her?
3) did i also infect my baby?
4) is it normal to have panic attacks on head and ear?
5) Am i at risk of spreading this to others?
6) I had this H.Pylori for 18 months and was diagnosed just few days ago, so is my treatment good to eradicate it from my stomach completely?
7) Would my Erythema of inner stomach upper left side go away after getting my treatment? it is so painful and hurt hard all the time

Sorry, i asked too many questions and i am much concerned about spreading it to other family members.

Appreciate your help on this.

Sorry for the slow response. I was travelling.

1. H. pylori is not sexually transmitted. it's unlikely that you get it from CSW. It's most likely you get it when you are young and your parents or carer gave it to you. Alternatively, you can get it from your partner via sharing food or kissing.

2. it is possible to transmit H. pylori to your partner. It can be avoided by good hygiene. After a good teeth brushing and mouth wash, it will reduce chance of transmission. Alternatively, she can get a test and if positive, get treatment together with you.

3. it is possible to pass H. pylori to your baby. But studies showed that children below 2 years old is rare to be infected. So I suspect as they start solid food, it is when they get infected by contaminated food. The detail how the child is infected is not yet known.

4. it is not normal to have panic attacks.

5. risk of spreading H. pylori to others depends on many factors. for example, constant vomit or reflux (which contain large concentration of live H. pylori).

6.
(i) many people catch this bacteria since young. normally stay in human without symptoms. Only a handful of infected person get sick when they are in their 20s and even less get ulcers in their 30s and even less get cancer in their 50s and above.

(ii) the triple therapy that you are taking has a cure rate of 80%. However, it depends on how many antibiotics were you exposed to previously. The more antibiotics you had taken, the less likely this treatment will work.

7. it is likely that the erythema will go away after the H. pylori is completely eradicated. But, hope that your pain is really related to the erythema.

You are welcome to share your stories and ask questions here.

Thanks for following up with all my queries.

i had only taken doxycycline and cefexime for 10 days because of unknown reason of getting high fever for 3 weeks and had continuously on/off diarrhea for 15 months. After taking those 2 antibiotics my diarrhea problem was completely vanished and fever down other than that no antibiotics. Does that sound like HP had taken given this high fever because of not being treated for 18 months? i called it unknown because all my test during high fever were 100% negative.

And forgot to mention that my father was diagnosed with H.Pylori positive 4 years back but his doctor said HP Blood test isn't reliable than endoscopy and biopsy however endoscopy found inflammation and mild Gastritis and biopsy was negative and he never recommended breath test so he never got treatment however he has the same pain on exact spot where i have.

same in my case, endoscopy found inflammation reason erythema, biopsy negative but blood and breath test positive. the upper left stomach pain under or over the rib cage that i have, thats where erythema was found. it has really changed the quality of life. Finally does HP give you erythema?

Have a great day

HP can give you gastric erythema. However, it doesnt give you fever. at least not directly. as mentioned. most infected people carry it for many years without knowing it.

blood test is quite sensitive. of course, biopsy can be even more sensitive. But biopsy is skill dependent. It depends on the skill of the pathologist and microbiologist.

So, let wait till you finish the treatment. Then book yourself a followup breath test (one month later) to check if HP is eradicated. Perhaps, your father should get tested too.

You replies are very useful thanks for your help

Yeah it’s quite important that everyone in the family should test it. The nature of HIV virus makes it more lethal as it remains dormant for such a large time. Even many celebrities have fallen to this virus as it’s clear from list of HIV positive celebrities. I wonder when they came to know about it, what they went through!