Testing begins for h. pylori
Research team studying common
stomach infection in the North
Stewart Burnett
Northern News Services
Thursday, February 16, 2017
INUVIK
You might not be able to pronounce it but there's a decent chance you have it, and for the next week you've got a chance to get tested.
Janis Geary: Managing director of CANHelp Working Group out of the University of Alberta encourages interested participants to get tested for h. pylori. - photo courtesy of Janis Geary
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Helicobacter pylori (shortened to h. pylori) is a common bacterial infection in people's stomach, and it's estimated around 60 per cent of Northerners in the communities CANHelp Working Group has visited have it.
The bacteria infects the lower part of the stomach and infection usually happens during childhood. Many people carry it their whole lives until it is treated. Most people show no symptoms at all.
"People in the North are concerned about h. pylori because it can cause some more serious outcomes like peptic ulcer disease and very rarely stomach cancer," said Janis Geary, managing director of CANHelp out of the University of Alberta, emphasizing that cancer is an extremely rare outcome.
CANHelp has been running a research project in Northern communities for a decade now, having started in Aklavik after community members initiated it.
The Inuvialuit Regional Corporation then asked the team to expand the project to other Inuvialuit Settlement Region communities.
The team held a community meeting to plan the Inuvik launch in 2015, and now researchers are here to test residents for the bacteria.
"What we do with these projects is we screen people for the infection, we ask them about their clinical history, risk factors or exposures that might increase their chance of getting h. pylori, evaluate their stomach through endoscopy and take samples to grow in the lab and learn more about it," said Geary.
Staff are currently on site at the Aurora Research Institute welcoming anyone in Inuvik to get tested. The full test takes about an hour and a half and includes breathing into a bag, the samples of which will then be taken back to Edmonton.
For people who do have the infection, at some point in the future the team will offer endoscopy by a gastroenterologist from Edmonton, in which a camera is placed down the patient's throat and into the stomach to look around. Then a sample of stomach tissue will be collected, looked at under a microscope and grown in a lab to learn more about it.
Treatment for h. pylori typically includes antibiotics.
The infection is common around the world, but the rate is much higher in the circumpolar North than in southern Canada.
"We invite anyone who's interested, whether they have symptoms or not, to come and participate in the research project," said Geary.
"It's important to have people who both have the infection and don't in order to compare the risk factors between them."
The research team will be in Inuvik until Feb. 25, open Mondays to Saturdays.
