HANOI, Sept. 18 (Xinhua) -- Some 70 percent of Vietnam's population are infected with Helicobacter Pylori (HP) bacteria which can lead to duodenal ulcers and stomach cancer, according to one of the biggest hospitals in the country.
Besides the high rate of people having HP bacteria in their stomachs, Vietnam faces another problem: the bacteria has developed resistance to many kinds of antibiotics due to abuse of antibiotics among patients, Bach Mai Hospital said on Monday.
Many kinds of medicines are 80-90 percent effective in treating stomach diseases caused by HP bacteria in many countries, but they are only 50-70 percent effective in Vietnam.
Antibiotic resistance is a hard-to-solve problem in Vietnam because many patients use antibiotics rampantly without prescriptions, local doctors said, noting that the resistance leads to longer hospital stays, higher medical costs and increased mortality.
Over half of the world's population harbor HP in their upper gastrointestinal tract, and infection is more common in developing countries than Western countries, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
