Frequency of H. pylori Infection among Patients with Gastrointestinal Symptoms Attending Somali Sudanese Specialized Hospital (SSSH), Mogadishu, Somalia

Abstract

Background: Helicobacter pylori is a human-specific pathogen, which leads to gastric pathologies including gastric cancer. Fifty percent of the world's population from 62 countries is infected with H. pylori infection. Making it the most widespread infection in humans. The aim of the study was to determine the frequency of H. pylori infection among patients with gastrointestinal symptoms. Materials and Methods: This study was descriptive cross-sectional Hospital-based study conducted at Somali Sudanese Specialized Hospital (SSSH), Mogadishu, Somalia during the period of December 2022 to March 2023. A total of 1009 subjects were included in the study. Fresh stool samples were collected for antigen detection. The test was done in the ICT of H. pylori stool antigen detection (Intec, China; catalog number ITP10003-DS50). The data was gathered using per-designed structural questionnaire and the SPSS 26.0 statistical software (SPSS Inc., USA) was used for statistical analysis. Results: The age of the study population ranges from 5 months to 62 years with a mean age of 34 ± 27.5 years. 57.4% of them were female patients, where 42.6% were male patients. The study showed no significant correlation between gender and frequency of H. pylori infection with P-value of 0.137. According to the frequency of H. pylori infection among the patients with gastrointestinal symptoms; 44.8% of them had H. pylori infection. Regarding to frequency of H. pylori infection in the recent months, the most frequent period of prevalence was in February (56.5%), followed by January (51.1%), followed by December (43.8%) where the least frequent was in March (26.9%) which showed significant correlation between prevalence period and H. pylori infection frequency with P-value of 0.000. Conclusion: This study concluded a high frequency of H. pylori infection among patients with gastrointestinal symptoms.