The Hindu Business Line : Youth rescued from rare cancer caused by prevalent bacteria

DOCTORS at a city hospital undertook a probe akin to what scientists at NASA do to explore a cosmic body. This was to ascertain why the stomach of a 28-year-old youth had shrunk to the size of a newborn.

They sent a tiny capsule with a camera eye, which took 60,000 pictures of the labyrinthine intestines. Multiple biopsies using endoscopic ultrasonography (which is available only in a few hospitals in Asia) were done.

After this painstaking exercise, the doctors zeroed in on spots where H. Pylori, a very clever bacteria, had dug itself deep in the intestines. It had just started turning the cells cancerous.

The bacteria did not show up in the upper parts. Any normal check would have missed its presence. "We did this after routine tests gave no clue about the disease," Dr Nageshwar Reddy, Chief Gastroenterologist and Director of the Asian Institute of Gastroenterology, said.

Mr S. Papireddy, a 1995 batch medical student at Guntur Medical College, was forced to quit his final year studies and return to his village in Prakasam district only to await death, following the mysterious and debilitating disease.

The would-be doctor reckoned it was gastritis. Some other doctors thought so too. But he continued to suffer from severe pain even as his weight came down to 19 kg. Unable to bear the pain and medical costs any more, his entire family even contemplated suicide.

Then came a newspaper report on his plight, which caught the attention of Dr Nageshwar Reddy. Mr Papireddy was brought to AIG's facility in Hyderabad. The capsule probe helped diagnose that he had a rare disease called MALToma, an early stage of cancer caused by H. Pylori bacteria.

Since the disease was rare and no literature was available in the country, the AIG team sought a second opinion from abroad.

Mr Papireddy was given a combination of antibiotics and other medical support thereafter. "Now, he weighs 33 kg with a normal size stomach," Dr Nageswhar Reddy told newspersons.

The entire cost of treatment was borne by Asian Healthcare Foundation, a charity promoted by AIG. Mr Papireddy is no more a challenge for the medical fraternity. He is going to complete his medical degree this October. "He may even find a job here," Dr Reddy said.

His problem was a rare one indeed. But not H. Pylori. The real challenge for doctors and policymakers lies in the fact that 60-70 per cent of Indians in rural areas are exposed to the bacteria.

"Scores of people may be dying unnoticed due to this bacteria. Its prevalence is directly linked to a country's development. It is linked to health and hygiene," the AIG Director said. The institute is trying to develop a vaccine to guard against H. Pylori.

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