HELICOBACTER-PYLORI - PREVALENCE, TRANSMISSION, AND SERUM PEPSINOGEN-II CONCENTRATIONS IN CHILDREN OF A POOR PERIURBAN COMMUNITY IN BANGLADESH

The aim of this study was to determine the age-specific prevalence of Helicobacter pylori infection in infants and children aged 1-99 months from a poor periurban community in Bangladesh. We also examined the f requency of infection among infants and their 53 immediate family memb ers and evaluated the relationship between infection and fasting serum group II pepsinogen (pepsinogen II) concentration in 76 children, Six ty-one percent of 1-3 month-old infants tested positive for H. pylori; this rate declined steadily to 33% in children aged 10-15 months and then increased to 84% in children aged 5-8 years. The H. pylori infect ion rate was 2.5 times higher in children with illiterate mothers. No difference in infection rate was detected among the family contacts of infected vs. noninfected infants. H. pylori-infected children had sig nificantly higher serum pepsinogen II concentrations than did noninfec ted children (P < .001). We conclude that infection with H. pylori is highly prevalent and occurs at an early age. An environmental factor o r factors, rather than or in addition to intrafamilial spread of this infection, are important in poor communities of Bangladesh. The higher levels of serum pepsinogen II in H. pylori-positive children might in dicate the presence of gastritis in such asymptomatic children.