**1. Introduction**

Infections due to *Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori)* is a public health challenge globally as approximately 50% (over 3 billion) of the world population are known to be infected with this organism [1]. In 1983, Warren and Marshall identified *H. pylori*, which were formally called *Campylobacter pylori*, as a flagellated spiral, Gram negative organism that have the capacity to synthesize urease in greater amounts [2]. Before then, laboratory analysis of upper gastrointestinal diseases that shows dyspepsia was with much complexity [3]. However, *H. pylori* has become a key etiological factor considered in cases of peptic ulcer disease (PUD), chronic gastritis, gastric cancer, and gastric mucosa associated lymphoid tissue (MALT) lymphoma in recent times [4–7].

Transmission of this organism could be person-to-person spread by either fecal-oral or oral-oral routes. Studies have shown that the organism can be isolated in feces, dental plaque, and saliva of few infected persons [8–9]. Most individuals infected with this organism are asymptomatic [10]. But in most situations, infected individuals are shows associated symptoms like mild to severe scorching intestinal ache that outspreads from the navel to the chest region. Nausea, loss of appetite, weight loss, vomiting, indigestion, and melena are other symptoms of this infection [5, 6, 9]. This bacterial pathogen is the primary cause of ulcers and its exact route of spread is still not known [4], there are other factors that has impact in ulcer generation including use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) like; ibuprofen, aspirin and piroxican [11]. Other fewer shared predictors may include smoking, cocaine, severe illness, Crohn's disease, alcoholism, autoimmune problems and radiation treatment among others [9, 12].

There are several diagnostic protocols for *H. pylori* infection [9, 13]. However, fecal antigen and urea breath tests shows utmost precision to check and approve the pathogen [13]. Nevertheless, serologic assays that detect the antibodies of *H. pylori* presence in human serum is commonly used especially in low resource countries like Nigeria [6, 14]. Practicing good hygiene and hand washing, especially with food preparation are keys for prevention of *H. pylori* infection while treatment is best by combination of antibiotics and proton pump inhibitors [4, 15].

In developing countries the bacterial infection is high when compared to developed nations, maybe because of lack of basic social amenities, poor sanitary conditions, low socio-economic status, and reduced use of antibiotics for dissimilar pathologies [10, 16–18]. The prevalence rate of the infection ranges from 30–40 percent in the United States and parts of Europe [19–20], 80–90 percent in South America and 70–90 percent in Africa continent [6, 15, 16]. In a hyper-endemic area of this bacterial infection like Nigeria [6, 7, 21, 22], there is a serious need to update the knowledge on the epidemiology of this bacterial infection and its related predictors to generate intervention programs that will reduce the morbidity and mortality of infected individuals. Therefore, this chapter principally determined the seromarkers for *H. pylori* infection among students of Nasarawa State University Keffi, Central Nigeria. It also identified possible predisposing factors such as gender, age, marital status, sources of water, toilet facilities among others from results obtained.
