Epidemiology of Chlamydia trachomatis in the Middle East and north Africa: a systematic review, meta-analysis, and meta-regression.

BACKGROUND: The epidemiology of Chlamydia trachomatis in the Middle East and north Africa is poorly understood. We aimed to provide a comprehensive epidemiological assessment of C trachomatis infection in the Middle East and north Africa. METHODS: We did a systematic review of C trachomatis infection as well as a meta-analysis and meta-regression of C trachomatis prevalence. We searched PubMed and Embase, as well as regional and national databases up to March 13, 2019, using broad search terms with no language or year restrictions. Any document or report including biological measures for C trachomatis prevalence or incidence was eligible for inclusion. We extracted all measures of current (genital or rectal), recent, and ever infection with C trachomatis. We estimated pooled average prevalence in different populations using random-effects meta-analysis. Factors associated with prevalence and sources of between-study heterogeneity were determined using meta-regression. FINDINGS: We identified a total of 1531 citations, of which 255 reports contributed to 552 C trachomatis prevalence measures from 20 countries. No incidence measures were identified. Pooled prevalence of current genital infection was 3·0% (95% CI 2·3-3·8) in general populations, 2·8% (1·0-5·2) in intermediate-risk populations, 13·2% (7·2-20·7) in female sex workers, 11·3% (9·0-13·7) in infertility clinic attendees, 12·4% (7·9-17·7) in women with miscarriage, 12·4% (9·4-15·7) in symptomatic women, and 17·4% (12·5-22·8) in symptomatic men. Pooled prevalence of current rectal infection was 7·7% (4·2-12·0) in men who have sex with men. Substantial between-study heterogeneity was found. Multivariable meta-regression explained 29·0% of variation. Population type was most strongly associated with prevalence. Additional associations were found with assay type, sample size, country, and sex, but not with sampling methodology or response rate (about 90% of studies used convenience sampling and >75% had unclear response rate). There was no evidence for temporal variation in prevalence between 1982 and 2018. INTERPRETATION: C trachomatis prevalence in the Middle East and north Africa is similar to other regions, but higher than expected given its sexually conservative norms. High prevalence in infertility clinic attendees and in women with miscarriage suggests a potential role for C trachomatis in poor reproductive health outcomes in this region. FUNDING: National Priorities Research Program from the Qatar National Research Fund (a member of Qatar Foundation)

Sloane-White, Patricia. Corporate Islam: Sharia and the Modern Workplace. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2017.

Book review

Ali, Muna. Young Muslim America: Faith, Community, and Belonging. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018.

Book review

Patterns of thought: An anthropological study of rural Egyptian world views.

This study aims to show not only the impact of world views and thought on people's action in rural Egypt but also how they integrate to form a pattern (or patterns) of thought and action. The research is an ethnographic study based on fieldwork conducted in an Egyptian village, Beheira governorate (Western Delta). It deals with various domains of the villager's life in order to underst and empirically and contextually the differences and similarities between their patterns of thought and world views. These domains include social structure, the economic system, political organization, and religious and non-religious (magical) beliefs and practices or rituals. Religious, magical, mystical, and secular patterns of thought and action can be understood by focusing on their underlying principles as well as by spelling out the relationship between these principles and modes of thought. In this context, the study is centrally concerned with the basic principles or themes around which others are clustered. Fundamental here is the hierarchical relationship between az-zahir (the visible) and al-batin or al-ghaib (the invisible). Concentrating on this binary opposition facilitates the study of complicated patterns of thought and world views by starting with their simple grounded principles and moving toward the cluster of principles of thought and action built upon them. The study emphasizes the sytematic unity of what seems on the surface to be characterized by diversity and disunity. Although the visible and invisible constitute two different worlds and are associated with different modes of thought for villagers they are not separate, but rather form one unity. The conclusion of this study is that a religious world view, from the villagers' own perspective, is the dominant pattern of thought. The relation between religious and non-religious patterns of thought is simultaneously one of opposition or contrast and encompassment. This means that religious thought contradicts non-religious patterns of thought whether magical, experimental, or secular, yet it encompasses them as far as they are evaluated by people as being good or bad, relevant or irrelevant in their relation to it.Ph.D.Cultural anthropologyUniversity of Michiganhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/161913/1/8821567.pd