A man who died three months after being diagnosed with stomach cancer may have developed the disease from a deadly insect during a sabbatical in India 20 years earlier, his mother has claimed.
Zak Wilcox, who was just 40 when he passed away in 2021, backpacked across the country at 19.
But in the last week of his trip, he suffered from sickness and diarrhea that lasted for three weeks.
At the time, he believed that he had suffered from a stomach virus caused by eating food that was washed with tap water, which is not suitable for drinking.
His mother, Rebecca Wilcox, believes he was infected with the Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) bacterium, which is known to increase the risk of stomach cancer.
Zak Wilcox (pictured), who was just 40 when he passed away in 2021, backpacked India at 19. But in the last week of his trip, he suffered from illness and diarrhea that lasted for three weeks. At the time, he believed that he had suffered from a stomach virus caused by eating food that was washed with tap water, which is unfit to drink.
His mother, Rebecca Wilcox, believes he was infected with the Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) bacterium, which is known to increase the risk of stomach cancer.
Ms Wilcox has since started a campaign to raise awareness of a £7 test that can detect H. pylori, believing it triggered her son’s cancer. But there is no proof that she had the error. For those currently suffering from symptoms of the bacterial infection, the test is available free of charge on the NHS.
She said Mirror: ‘If I had known that I should have had a Helicobacter pylori test on my return from a gap year trip to India, where more than 80 per cent of the population is a carrier of this virus, I would still be here today.
“The insect pierces the stomach lining for years, sometimes decades, before becoming fatal.”
H. pylori is a type of bacteria that infects the lining of the stomach.
Spread through contaminated food and water, it usually infects people during childhood.
However, the infection, which causes stomach pain, nausea and loss of appetite, is no longer common in Britain, according to Cancer Research UK.
If a person is concerned that they may be infected, they can talk to their doctor.
Treatment consists of a one-week course of three different tablets, two of which are antibiotics while the third is a tablet to reduce the amount of acid in the stomach.
For most people, it does not cause problems.
But in around a tenth of people, it can cause a range of stomach conditions, including long-term severe acid reflux, inflammation of the stomach lining (gastritis), and peptic ulcers.
And one to three percent of those infected develop stomach cancer, according to Cancer Research UK.
Other factors, such as smoking and diet, can increase the risk of H. pylori causing cancer, he says.
The symptoms of stomach cancer can be so mild that people pass them off as persistent indigestion.
After Wilcox moved in with her mother in 2015, she began complaining of indigestion with foods, including buns, that she had never had a problem with before, Wilcox said.
When she began suffering from more severe stomach pain in September 2020, she visited her GP twice before scheduling an endoscopy in January 2021.
But by November, the pain had become so severe that he was rushed to hospital, where scans later revealed he had stomach cancer and gave him two to five months to live.
Ms Wilcox said: “Hearing I had cancer hit me in the stomach with a baseball bat. I couldn’t believe it – he was apparently fit and healthy, had a good diet and only drank socially. It was terrible.’
In January, Wilcox underwent surgery to remove his stomach. Although his family believed the surgery was successful, he died on March 9.
Ms Wilcox has since started a campaign to raise awareness of a £7 test that can detect H. pylori, believing it triggered her son’s cancer.
But there is no proof that he had the error.
For those currently suffering from symptoms of the bacterial infection, the test is available free of charge on the NHS.
Ms Wilcox told the Mirror: ‘I know a test could have saved him. It is a reasonable test with antibiotics to treat it.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has also named aggressive strains of H. pylori among the most dangerous superbugs, which pose a major threat to the human race. He has named aggressive strains of H. pylori, closely linked to peptic ulcers and gastric cancer, among the most dangerous. In the image, a digital illustration of Helicobacter pylori
Color transmission electron micrograph (TEM) of a section of the surface of a human stomach infected with the bacterium Helicobacter pylori (red). H. pylori colonies are found in the mucosal lining of the stomach. They cause gastritis, and are also the most common cause of stomach ulcers.
‘They (government and agencies) do not warn about it in the advice for travelers. This insect slowly eats away at your stomach and burrows into the lining, it doesn’t like stomach acid so you may not know you have it.
To learn more about the petition, visit Change.org here.
Around 6,500 cases of stomach cancer are diagnosed in the UK each year, while the disease is responsible for more than 4,200 deaths a year, the charity says.
The American Cancer Society estimates that about 26,500 new cases of stomach cancer will be diagnosed in the US in 2023 and there will be just over 11,000 deaths from this type of cancer.
Research has also shown that about 90 percent of non-cardia gastric cancer, a tumor in the main part of the stomach, is caused by an H. pylori infection.
In recent years, H. pylori antibiotic resistance has become a major and urgent problem worldwide.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has named aggressive strains of H. pylori among the most dangerous superbugs, posing a major threat to the human race.
