Helicobacter pylori Seroprevalence among Students: A Case Study of the Higher Institute of Medical Techniques of Lubumbashi and the University of Lubumbashi

The WHO lists H. pylori as one of the 20 pathogens that pose the greatest threat to human health due to their antibiotic resistance and classifies it as a Group 1 gastric carcinogen, directly linked to stomach cancer. This study aimed to determine the prevalence of H. pylori infection among students in Lubumbashi and to test the associations between serological results and sex, age, and the presence of gastritis attack. This was a descriptive cross-sectional study conducted from March 14, 2024, to July 25, 2025, among 485 students from UNILU and ISTM in Lubumbashi. We included stu-dents with or without gastritis attack and those not receiving any antibiotic therapy, regardless of age or sex. Data were entered into Excel 2016 and pro-cessed using SPSS 23 software. Serological analyses were performed using Accurate’s H. pylori Ab Rapid Test Strip (One Step Dipstick Test), a 50-kit sample. The female sex had a slight predominance over the male sex at 52.99%, representing a sex ratio of 0.887. The subjects’ ages varied between 19 and 45 years, with an average of 25 ± 5 years. The prevalence of H. pylori infection was 77.94%, where 15.46% of cases did not have a gastritis attack. None statistically significant association was found between H. pylori test results and sex, Pearson’s chi-squared = 0.024 (p = 0.878) and Fisher’s exact test = 0.913; between H. pylori tests and gastritis attack, Pearson’s chi-squared = 0.344 (p = 0.558) and Fisher’s exact test = 0.587; nor between the positive tests and age, with binary logistic regression (OR = 0.978, [95% CI: 0.943 - 1.015], p = 0.235). Congolese students in general, and those in Lubumbashi in particular, face several constraints during their studies, in-cluding stress, dietary imbalance, self-medication, overcrowding, etc., which are also factors that promote H. pylori infection.