<P> Before the research of Marshall and Warren, German scientists found spiral - shaped bacteria in the lining of the human stomach in 1875, but they were unable to culture them, and the results were eventually forgotten . The Italian researcher Giulio Bizzozero described similarly shaped bacteria living in the acidic environment of the stomach of dogs in 1893 . Professor Walery Jaworski of the Jagiellonian University in Kraków investigated sediments of gastric washings obtained by lavage from humans in 1899 . Among some rod - like bacteria, he also found bacteria with a characteristic spiral shape, which he called Vibrio rugula . He was the first to suggest a possible role of this organism in the pathogenesis of gastric diseases . His work was included in the Handbook of Gastric Diseases, but it had little impact, as it was written in Polish . Several small studies conducted in the early 20th century demonstrated the presence of curved rods in the stomachs of many people with peptic ulcers and stomach cancers . Interest in the bacteria waned, however, when an American study published in 1954 failed to observe the bacteria in 1180 stomach biopsies . </P> <P> Interest in understanding the role of bacteria in stomach diseases was rekindled in the 1970s, with the visualization of bacteria in the stomachs of people with gastric ulcers . The bacteria had also been observed in 1979, by Robin Warren, who researched it further with Barry Marshall from 1981 . After unsuccessful attempts at culturing the bacteria from the stomach, they finally succeeded in visualizing colonies in 1982, when they unintentionally left their Petri dishes incubating for five days over the Easter weekend . In their original paper, Warren and Marshall contended that most stomach ulcers and gastritis were caused by bacterial infection and not by stress or spicy food, as had been assumed before . </P> <P> Some skepticism was expressed initially, but within a few years multiple research groups had verified the association of H. pylori with gastritis and, to a lesser extent, ulcers . To demonstrate H. pylori caused gastritis and was not merely a bystander, Marshall drank a beaker of H. pylori culture . He became ill with nausea and vomiting several days later . An endoscopy 10 days after inoculation revealed signs of gastritis and the presence of H. pylori . These results suggested H. pylori was the causative agent . Marshall and Warren went on to demonstrate antibiotics are effective in the treatment of many cases of gastritis . In 1987, the Sydney gastroenterologist Thomas Borody invented the first triple therapy for the treatment of duodenal ulcers . In 1994, the National Institutes of Health stated most recurrent duodenal and gastric ulcers were caused by H. pylori, and recommended antibiotics be included in the treatment regimen . </P> <P> The bacterium was initially named Campylobacter pyloridis, then renamed C. pylori in 1987 (pylori being the genitive of pylorus, the circular opening leading from the stomach into the duodenum, from the Ancient Greek word πυλωρός, which means gatekeeper .). When 16S ribosomal RNA gene sequencing and other research showed in 1989 that the bacterium did not belong in the genus Campylobacter, it was placed in its own genus, Helicobacter from the ancient Greek hělix / έλιξ "spiral" or "coil". </P>

Helicobacter pylori is implicated as a causative agent in the development