Question

The bacterium Helicobacter pylori colonizes the stomachs of > 50% of the world's population. This species is what some call a "pathobiont," an organism that is a member of the human microbiome but can cause disease in some individuals. Of those infected with H. pylori, approximately 5% develop gastric ulcers and 1-3% develop gastric cancer. Interestingly, hosts that are colonized with H. pylori are also less likely to develop allergic diseases and active tuberculosis!

The high rate of gastric cancer and H. pylori recurrence after treatment in Tibet has led some administrators to propose treating the entire population of Tibet with antibiotics to eradicate the bacterium.

But is the proposed treatment a good idea from a public health perspective?

Discuss the benefits and problems that would result from such a country-wide treatment plan. Your discussion should take into account the functions and activities of the human microbiome that were presented in the reading."

Answer 1

The proposed treatment of treating the entire Tibetian community with antibiotics to eradicate the bacterium has its own ups and downs. From the public health perspective such treatment is a good indicator for those who are at a young age and with high immunity. But for people whose immune system has gone weak will have some problems such as, when treated with antibiotics the other existing human microbiome will also get disturbed and they protect the body from some bacterial strains. If these microbiota were to be eradicated from the humans due to this antibiotic treatment then the oppurtuinistic microbes would infect and increase in number inside the humans causing a secondary infections. Though the antibiotic is assumed to kill all the H.pylori bacteria, there is downside to this because not all bacterial strains of H.pylori maybe susceptible to the existing antibiotic and the few that are left will develop into a resistant strain of bacteria and will be causing an even more intense infection at which stage we wont be having an antibiotic to treat that disease. The upside for this is that it acts as an easy and short term prevention step toward the prevention of the infections and ulcers and also the cancers caused by this bacteria.

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