EXCLUSIVE: More on the H pylori ailment as medical cases rises
By Sammy WaweruH.pylori is now a common ailment in Kenya, with doctors reporting increased cases in the disease that mainly affects the stomach.
The condition, better known as Helicobacter pylori, is a bacterium that infects the stomach, and medical practitioners warn that it can damage the tissue and the first part of the small intestine (the duodenum).
It causes redness and soreness (inflammation), with Dr Eustace Hezekiel, a Nairobi City-based doctor, stating that the most notable signs are stomach pains.
“Some patients experience a running stomach, while others experience pain. Nevertheless, the signs and symptoms differ among patients, and it is advisable to seek medical attention,” Dr Hezekiel urges.
However, in most reported cases, patients lament experiencing lower abdominal pain.
In some incidences, it can also cause painful sores called peptic ulcers in the upper digestive tract.
It attacks the lining that protects the stomach, and the bacterium makes an enzyme called urease.
The enzyme makes stomach acids less acidic (neutralizes them), weakening the stomach’s lining, hence increasing the risk of being hurt by acid and pepsin, strong digestive fluids leading to sores or ulcers in the stomach or duodenum.
The H. pylori bacteria can also stick to stomach cells, and the stomach can’t protect itself very well. The area becomes red and swollen (inflamed).
H. pylori can also stimulate the stomach to produce more acid.
Though health experts have not fully established how H. pylori infection spreads, according to the Johns Hopkins Medicine website, they believe the germs can be passed from person to person by mouth, through kissing.
It may also be passed by coming in contact with vomit or stool, which may happen if you consume unclean food, food that is not cooked well, or drinking water infected with the bacteria.
“When I unknowingly contracted the condition for the first time in 2022, I rarely consumed acidic foods such as vegetables, fruits, and tomatoes,” Irene Waithera, an H. pylori survivor, told Nairobi News in an exclusive interview.
She was put under medication, H. pylori kits; the first dose was administered for 14 days, consecutively.
They include six tablets, taken in groups of three; in the morning and the evening.
“The drugs require a patient to eat heavily before taking them,” advises Tabitha Kimani, a medic working for a Nairobi city government-owned facility.
Apart from the two-week medication, some patients receive additional drugs for one month, depending on their retest outcomes after the first 14 days.
Patients are restricted in their diet, and advised to avoid acidic foods such as kales, indigenous vegetables, beans, as well as red meat and starch.
However, Dr Eustace Hezekiel regrets that most health facilities, including public and privately owned ones, have turned H. pylori into a cash cow ‘project’.
“I have handled so many cases of misdiagnosis; patients are told they suffer from the condition, which is not the case,” explains the doctor.
Dr Hezekiel attributes the misdiagnosis to most health facilities commercializing their ventures instead of offering the right services to the patients.
Additionally, he mentions the existence of substandard and counterfeit testing kits in the medical market.
Headaches, joint pains, lack of appetite, and weight loss are some of the side effects caused by the drugs administered to manage the condition.
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