Current therapy for Helicobacter pylori infection in children and adolescents

Helicobacter pylori infects approximately 50% of the world's population and is a definitive cause of gastroduodenal disease (ie, gastritis, duodenal and gastric ulcers) in children and adults. Four consensus conferences held around the globe have brought together clinicians, scientists, epidemiologists and health care economists to discuss the role of the gastric pathogen H pylori in human gastroduodenal disease. At each of these conferences, the overriding objective was to reach a consensus on the development of practical guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of H pylori-infected individuals. However, it was not until the Canadian H pylori Consensus Conference, held in November 1997, that the issues of H pylori infection in children were addressed. Therapies for H pylori infection in children, presented in part at the First Canadian Pediatric H pylori Consensus Conference, held in Victoria, British Columbia, November 1998, are reviewed in this paper.