After reading the info on H pylori testing from the last couple of days, Kerry, from Perth in Australia wrote and asked:
“Should family members get tested for H pylori too because I’ve read it can be passed between people?”
The simple answer is yes, get family members tested because it can do no harm and according to some studies, may prevent reinfection.
It’s important to point out that because we’re all different, nobody – including me – can say for sure that reinfection will happen. Individual circumstances such as stress, diet and a weak immune system MAY make some people more prone to getting H pylori more than once.
It’s awful when someone works hard to get rid of H pylori only for it to be passed right back to them by a partner, spouse or child.
Reinfection is surprisingly common and I know a lot of cases where entire families were infected due to sharing eating and drinking utensils, etc.
Some people carry H pylori round without any symptoms, and these are the ones that can sneakily pass it around.
The literature definitely supports the notion that H pylori can be passed from person to person because they find identical genetic strains in very young kids and both parents.
Check out my blog post here, explaining how me, my girlfriend and her brother were all infected at the same time (and before you go there, it wasn’t because the three of us were sleeping together!)
Best
Dave
This is my third treatment for h.pylori, how do I get rid of it permanently? Should my whole family be tested?
Hi Matilda,
In a nutshell, your treatment might not be working because you may have strain of H. pylori that is resistant to be antibiotics.
This is common.
Also, you MIGHT be experiencing difficulty because of continual reinfection from family members.
Here are my recommendations.
1. make sure you read my book, The H Pylori Diet so you can get to know about the topic of H. pylori treatment in detail.
You can find it here: http://www.h-pylori-symptoms.com/h-pylori-diet-ebook
2. consider getting your family members tested, even if they don’t have symptoms because perhaps they are reinfecting you.
If you would like our help in running the testing, we can do this for you.
We can test to see whether you have a resistant H. pylori strain.
Best,
Dave
* please see disclaimers at the bottom of this page: I can’t guarantee your results will be the same as me and others, but you have to keep moving forward to find the best solution for YOU ?