Application of a Stool Antigen Test to Evaluate the Prevalence of Helicobacter pylori Infection in Qazvin, Iran, and Necessity of Implementing New Therapeutic Strategies to Combat Bacterial Infections

Backgroun: Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection is one of the most common infections acquired in the community. Study after study has shown that, H. pylori plays a major role in gastritis and gastric ulcer which is result in gastric cancer. Gastrointestinal diseases are major reasons for morbidity and mortality throughout the world. Many epidemiological studies have been done up to now indicated the predominant serious prevalence of H. pylori. The aim of this retrospective cross-sectional survey is to assess the incidence of H. pylori in Qazvin province, Iran. Methods: A sero-epidemiological study was carried out in Qazvin, Iran. H. pylori was diagnosed using a commercially available stool antigen test (HpSA). The H. pylori CARD Test is a rapid immune chromatography assay (ICA) test that uses a monoclonal anti-H. pylori antibody on a strip for the detection of H. pylori infections in stool specimens. Results: In the current study the overall infection rate was calculated approximately near to 52% that is remarkable (224 out of 434 patients). Conclusion: Accordingly, dedicating attention to further studies on the development of new strategies in order to treat and manage this bacterium through methods like Phage therapies, clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) and focusing on the use of microbiomes are suggested.