Across much of Europe, resistance to antibiotics used to treat bacterial infections associated with common stomach conditions has more than doubled in the last two decades, according to new research. Preliminary findings presented at United European Gastroenterology Week Barcelona 2019 suggest that resistance to antibiotics commonly taken for Helicobacter pylori infection, a bacterium that is associated with gastric ulcer, lymphoma, and gastric cancer, is increasing in recent years. In a survey of more than 1,200 people from 18 European countries, researchers found that resistance to clarithromycin, antimicrobials used to commonly treat H. pylori, had increased from 9.9 percent in 1998 to 21.6 percent last year. Similar rises in resistance have been seen in levofloxacin and metronidazole. Antibiotic resistance occurs when a bacterium begins to develop a tolerance to the pharmaceutical drugs targeted to treat it. In recent years, antibiotic resistance has become an increasing issue