Kolkata, April 13 : Get rid of bacteria and improve public health to prevent stomach cancer in developing countries, Australian Nobel laureate Robin Warren said here Saturday.

Warren, who discovered the link between stomach bacterium H. pylori and ulcer and stomach cancer, said: "Improve public health. Get rid of bacteria from the stomach. Infection rate in Australia is now 20 percent. Now it is only one in five people; 50 years ago it was 50 percent. In third world countries its almost a hundred percent," Warren told IANS.

Warren was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 2005 with co-researcher Barry Marshall.

Speaking at the Kolkata Annual Research and Medical (and Dental) International Congress 2013 (KARMIC) conference at the Calcutta Medical College here, Warren said: "In developing countries like Africa, South America and I suspect in India too, the infection rate is probably fairly high. In African countries, they have all sorts of infectious diseases to worry about."(IANS)