There have been very few systematic reviews looking at maternal infections in the developing world, even though cutting maternal mortality by three quarters is United Nation’s Millennium 

Development Goal number five. This systematic review has two aims. The first is to present the prevalence of parasitic infections in the developing world over the last 30 years and the second is to evaluate the quality and distribution of research in this field

Campbell, Harry

Gravett, Courtney A

Gravett, Michael G

Roberts, Tom

Rubens, Craig E

Rudan, Igor

Theodoratou, Evropi

Velu, Prasad Palani

Wagner, Thor A

Zhang, Jian Shayne F

PubMed

Maternal morbidity and mortality in low and middle income countries has remained exceedingly high. However, information on bacterial and viral maternal infections, which are important contributors to poor pregnancy outcomes, is sparse and poorly characterised. This review aims to describe the epidemiology and aetiology of bacterial and viral maternal infections in low and middle income countries

Prasad Palani Velu

Courtney A. Gravett

Tom K. Roberts

Thor A. Wagner

Jian Shayne F. Zhang

Craig E. Rubens

Michael G. Gravett

Harry Campbell

Igor Rudan

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Journal of Global Health

Epidemiology and aetiology of maternal bacterial and viral infections in low- and middle-income countries

Evropi Theodoratou

Epidemiology and aetiology of maternal parasitic infections in low- and middle income countries

BACKGROUND: There have been very few systematic reviews looking at maternal infections in the developing world, even though cutting maternal mortality by three quarters is United Nation's Millennium Development Goal number five. This systematic review has two aims. The first is to present the prevalence of parasitic infections in the developing world over the last 30 years and the second is to evaluate the quality and distribution of research in this field.METHODS: A systematic review of Medline, EMBASE and Global Health databases was undertaken using pre-determined search criteria. Three levels of quality criteria for exclusion of inadequate studies identified 115 out of initial 8580 titles. The data were extracted for 5 domains: worldwide pathogen prevalence, year of study, study setting, sample size and diagnostic test for each pathogen.RESULTS: The initial search retrieved 8580 results. From these titles, 43 studies on malaria, 12 studies on helminths, 49 studies on Toxoplasma gondii, 7 studies on Chagas disease, 5 studies on Trichomonas, 1 leishmaniasis study and 1 study on trichinellosis were extracted for analysis. High prevalence of malaria was found in Gabon (up to 57%) India (55%), Cameroon (50%), Yemen (55%), Nigeria (up to 64%) and Ghana (54%). High prevalence of hookworm infections was found in Nepal at 78.8% and high values of Ascaris lumbricoides were found in Nepal, (56.2%), Kenya (52.3%) and Gabon (45.5%). High levels of Schistosoma mansoni were found in Zimbabwe (50%) and Tanzania (63.5%). The prevalence of active Toxoplasma gondii infection was found to be highest in India (27.7%).CONCLUSION: This study highlights the large burden of maternal parasitic infections globally. It may serve as a useful starting point for health policy development and research prioritization in this area

Edinburgh Research Explorer

English

Epidemiology and aetiology of maternal parasitic infections in low- and middle-income countries

BACKGROUND: Maternal morbidity and mortality in low- and middle-income countries has remained exceedingly high. However, information on bacterial and viral maternal infections, which are important contributors to poor pregnancy outcomes, is sparse and poorly characterised. This review aims to describe the epidemiology and aetiology of bacterial and viral maternal infections in low- and middle-income countries.METHODS: A systematic search of published literature was conducted and data on aetiology and epidemiology of maternal infections was extracted from relevant studies for analysis. Searches were conducted in parallel by two reviewers (using OVID) in the following databases: Medline (1950 to 2010), EMBASE (1980 to 2010) and Global Health (1973 to 2010).RESULTS: Data from 158 relevant studies was used to characterise the epidemiology of the 10 most extensively reported maternal infections with the following median prevalence rates: Treponema pallidum (2.6%), Neisseria gonorrhoeae (1.5%), Chlamydia trachomatis (5.8%), Group B Streptococcus (8.6%), bacterial vaginosis (20.9%), hepatitis B virus (4.3%), hepatitis C virus (1.4%), Cytomegalovirus (95.7% past infection), Rubella (8.9% susceptible) and Herpes simplex (20.7%). Large variations in the prevalence of these infections between countries and regions were noted.CONCLUSION: This review confirms the suspected high prevalence of maternal bacterial and viral infections and identifies particular diseases and regions requiring urgent attention in public health policy planning, setting research priorities and donor funding towards reducing maternal morbidity and mortality in low- and middle-income countries

Roberts, Tom K

http://doaj.org/search?source=%7B%22query%22%3A%7B%22bool%22%3A%7B%22must%22%3A%5B%7B%22term%22%3A%7B%22id%22%3A%227d40d174e65447d9b6ebfc0de78cbf1e%22%7D%7D%5D%7D%7D%7D

Epidemiology and aetiology of maternal bacterial and viral infections in low- and middle-income countries

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