Beschreibung:
<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:sec><jats:title>Background</jats:title><jats:p><jats:italic>Helicobacter pylori</jats:italic> is a highly genetically diverse bacterial species, which can persist in the gastric environment for decades. Recent studies have shown that single infections predominate in developed countries, whereas mixed infections are more prevalent in developing countries. Mixed infections of this bacterium may be important for adaptation to the hostile gastric environment and may facilitate dyspeptic symptoms.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Materials and Methods</jats:title><jats:p>To calculate the prevalence of mixed infections in symptomatic and asymptomatic subjects, 2010 <jats:italic>H. pylori</jats:italic> isolates collected from 83 symptomatic and 91 asymptomatic subjects from Dhaka, Bangladesh, were analyzed by (i) random amplified polymorphic <jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">DNA</jats:styled-content> fingerprinting (<jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">RAPD</jats:styled-content>) and (ii) multiplex <jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">PCR</jats:styled-content> amplification for <jats:italic>cagA</jats:italic> and <jats:italic>vacA</jats:italic> virulence gene alleles.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Results</jats:title><jats:p>The overall prevalence of mixed <jats:italic>H. pylori</jats:italic> infection was 60.15% (77/128), indicating substantial co‐colonization in this population. We additionally found that symptomatic subjects (53%) had a significantly higher rate of mixed infection than asymptomatic individuals (36.3%) (<jats:italic>p </jats:italic>=<jats:italic> </jats:italic>.016) and that the prevalence of the <jats:italic>cagA</jats:italic> and <jats:italic>vacA</jats:italic> and <jats:italic>vacA m1/s1</jats:italic> and <jats:italic>vacA m2/s1</jats:italic> alleles were higher in subjects with mixed infection.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Conclusion</jats:title><jats:p>Our findings suggest that an increased diversity of the <jats:italic>H. pylori</jats:italic> strains in the gastric environment may contribute to the development of disease symptoms.</jats:p></jats:sec>