[Recurrence rate of Helicobacter pylori infection two years after successful eradication in Peruvian patients presenting with postprandial distress syndrome].

Introduction: The general reported recurrence rate of H. pylori infection in Peru is high, implying that the long term effectiveness of anti H. pylori therapy is lower than expected. This would lead to an increase in the prevalence of gastric cancer and other associated pathologies.
Materials and Methods: This is a prospective cohort study including Peruvian patients with postprandial distress and H. pylori infection confirmed by gastric biopsy who recieved treatment and achieved bacterial eradication. Two years after the initial diagnosis, patients were contacted to determine the recurrence rate of H. pylori infection through the Urea breath test.
Results: 101 /129 of the patients that were infected with H. pylori had a successful eradication of the infection and 28/129 failed to eradicate the bacteria. The effectiveness rate of treatment was 77.2%. Two years after successful eradication we were able to contact 65/101 participants, 5 of them presented positive urea breath tests (recurrence rate of infection of 7.7%) (IC 1.5%-13.5%, α = 0.05). The annual recurrence rate was 3.85% per year/ patient. 94% of the patients in the cohort came from poor city areas, 95.4% had drinking water at home and 90.8% drank boiled drinking water on a daily basis.
Conclusions: The recurrence rate of H. pylori in some populations of Peru is lower than expected and comparable with developed countries.