Research Article Prevalence and Associated Symptoms of Helicobacter pylori Infection among Schoolchildren in Kassala State, East of Sudan Mohammed Abbas, 1,2 Faiza A. Sharif, 3 Shamselfalah M. Osman, 2,4 Abdallah M. Osman, 2 Sulieman M. El Sanousi, 5 Mamoun Magzoub, 6 and Mutasim E. Ibrahim 7 1 Department of Pediatrics, College of Medicine, University of Bisha, Bisha, Saudi Arabia 2 Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine & Health Sciences, University of Kassala, Kassala, Sudan 3 Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine & Health Sciences, University of Kassala, Kassala, Sudan 4 Department of Pediatrics, King Saud Medical City, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia 5 Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Khartoum, Khartoum, Sudan 6 Department of Parasitology, Faculty of Medical Laboratory Science, International University of Africa, Khartoum, Sudan 7 Department of Clinical Microbiology and Parasitology, College of Medicine, University of Bisha, Bisha, Saudi Arabia Correspondence should be addressed to Mutasim E. Ibrahim; mutasimhadi87@hotmail.com Received 30 August 2017; Revised 10 November 2017; Accepted 17 December 2017; Published 15 January 2018 Academic Editor: Subhada Prasad Pani Copyright © 2018 Mohammed Abbas et al. Tis is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Tis study aimed to determine the prevalence of H. pylori infections among schoolchildren and investigate the associations between H. pylori seropositivity and existence of gastrointestinal symptoms. Methods. A prospective cross-sectional study was conducted during a period from January to December 2012 at Kassala state, east of Sudan. Schoolchildren from diferent primary schools were enrolled in the study. Sociodemographic characteristics and gastrointestinal symptoms were recorded from each child. A rapid immunochromatographic test was performed for the detection of H. pylori IgG antibodies. Data on patient demographic characteristics, clinical diagnosis, and fndings of H. pylori infection were analyzed by simple descriptive statistics. Results. Among 431 schoolchildren, H. pylori seropositivity was found to be 21.8%. Te majority of children (79; 84%) had BMI below the normal range. Te most frequent symptoms associated with H. pylori infections were nausea (25.5%), followed by gastric pain (24.5%) and heart pain (20.2%). Tere were statistically signifcant diferences in H. pylori seropositivity between boys and girls ( = 0.003). Conclusions. Te prevalence of H. pylori infection among schoolchildren in Kassala city has been documented. Although the majority of the disease was associated with several gastrointestinal symptoms, the role of infection in the etiology of abdominal symptoms needs further investigations. 1. Introduction Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) is a gram-negative bacterium colonizing human stomach and associated with numerous gastrointestinal diseases [1]. It is quite a frequent infection all over the world; more than half of the population in both developed and developing countries are infected with this microorganism [2, 3]. Most of the people acquire H. pylori infection during their early childhood [4]. H. pylori has been reported as a common cause of chronic gastritis, peptic ulcer diseases, and gastric cancer in adults [5]. Most of H. pylori infections usually are symptomless and without clinical manifestation, particularly in poor commu- nities [6]. However, signs and symptoms associated with the disease are primarily due to gastric or peptic ulcer illness or duodenal infammation. Furthermore, other symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, and abdominal pain may be attributed to other gastrointestinal diseases [7]. H. pylori infection developed during early childhood is considered as a signifcant risk factor for gastric carcinoma in the adult individual [8]. It is well known that H. pylori Hindawi Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Infectious Diseases Volume 2018, Article ID 4325752, 5 pages https://doi.org/10.1155/2018/4325752