Estimation of Hepatitis A Virus Infection Prevalence Among Eastern Mediterranean and Middle Eastern Countries: A Systematic Review and Pooled Analysis (original) (raw)
Context: Hepatitis A virus (HAV) infection is the most common type of acute viral hepatitis that has been proposed as an important public health issue. Most of the countries in WHO Eastern Mediterranean region (EMR) and Middle East (ME) have a high endemicity of HAV infection. To provide a comprehensive estimation of the epidemiology of HAV in this region, we carried out a systematic review on the literature reporting the prevalence of HAV infection in the EMR and ME. Evidence Acquisition: We conducted a systematic search in the databases including PubMed, Scopus, Science Direct, and Web of science using appropriate search strategies. Observational studies published between January 1990 and July 2016 with clearly stated data regarding HAV Ab (IgG) in non-high-risk groups from countries of EMR and ME were examined. We estimated the prevalence of HAV infection and 95% confidence interval based on the pooled data from all included studies for each country, and the regions were weighted...
Loading Preview
Sorry, preview is currently unavailable. You can download the paper by clicking the button above.