Helicobacter pylon epidemiology in sub-Saharan Africa, particularly among children, has been little investigated. A secondary endpoint of our study was to examine for associations between the seroprevalence of H. pylori and the incidence of malaria. We explored H. pylori prevalence by measuring serum IgG antibodies to H. pylori whole cell and cytotoxin-associated gene A (CagA) antigens by ELISA in a longitudinal cohort of 200 Ugandan children, aged 1-10 years at enrollment, in whom malaria incidence was followed over 572 person-years. First-sample seroprevalence for H. pylon -specific IgG (63%) and for the H. pylon protein CagA (78.5%) were both high, and they were positively associated with advancing age (per each 1-year age increase, OR (95% CI): 1.60(1.39-1.85), P<0.001). We observed nearly universal prevalence of CagA+ H. pylon by the age of 10 years in Kampala and found no evidence that H. pylori-positivity is protective against malaria. (C) 2011 Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
