Epidemiology of Helicobacter Pylori Infection in Moscow

H. pylori is transmitted from individual to individual and causes chronic active gastritis in all infected people. H. pylori infection can result in gastroduodenal ulcers, atrophic gastritis (AG), gastric carcinoma, and gastric MALT lymphoma. More than 90% of gastric carcinomas are linked to H. pylori infection that causes chronic AG. A long course of the disease leads to the loss of gastric glands (chronic AG) followed by gastric intestinal metaplasia (GIM), dysplasia, and cancer. This defines two cancer prevention strategies: primary that consists of detection and eradication of H. pylori and secondary that focuses on endoscopic screening for pre-neoplastic lesions and follow-up. Primary prevention planning requires reliable information on the H. pylori prevalence in the population. To design secondary prevention measures, an understanding of the age-sex structure of precancerous changes in the gastric mucosa (the prevalence of atrophic gastritis) is necessary. H. pylori eradication is the basis of primary prevention of gastric cancer (GC). Approximately 36,000 new cases of GC are registered in the Russian Federation each year, and more than 34,000 patients die from the disease. Men get sick 1.3 times more often than women, the peak incidence occurs at the age of over 50 years. The poor outcomes reflect the late stage of diagnosis of this potentially preventable and treatable cancer. The lack of up-to-date data on the H. pylori prevalence in Moscow hinders developing of measures for the detection and timely treatment of this infection as well as the reduction of GC morbidity and mortality.