Assessment of health economics on infection by Helicobacter pylori

Helicobacter pylori is the primary cause of gastritis and peptic ulcer desease and it is linked to gastric low-grade lymphomas and gastric cancer; the clinical efficacy of a not very expensive therapy such as the eradication demonstrates that the eradication therapy of this bacteria, considered a class 1 carcinogen, represents an efficient use of the economical resources. The eradication therapy has infact a favourable cost-efficacy ratio compared to the absence of therapy or to the acid-suppressive therapy alone. Moreover, the introduction of the "Teast and treat" strategy, which is able to establish the presence of Helicobacter pylori with a noninvasive test such as the 13C-UBT or stool testing, it was significantly reduced the Endoscopy Unit work and becoming therefore more cost-effective than either endoscopy or empirical therapy and allowing you to go directly to the most appropriate treatment.