Prevalence of human leishmaniasis in Sudan: A systematic review and meta-analysis
Musa Ahmed, A Abdulslam Abdullah, Idris Bello, Suad Hamad, Aboelgassim Bashir
Abstract
BACKGROUND: There are three main forms of leishmaniasis in humans: cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL), visceral leishmaniasis (VL), and mucocutaneous leishmaniasis. The prevalence of human leishmaniasis varies widely in different countries and different regions of the same country. To date, there is no overall estimation of the prevalence of human leishmaniasis in Sudan. AIM: To determine the pooled prevalence of human leishmaniasis and the disease risk factors among Sudanese citizens. METHODS: ) were used to remove the duplicated studies and manage the citation respectively. RESULTS: 40%). The current results revealed that the people in the age group between 15 and 44 were the most affected group (60%), and central Sudan has the highest pooled prevalence of human leishmaniasis (27%) compared with other regions of Sudan. Finally, the prevalence of human leishmaniasis seems to decrease with time. CONCLUSION: This study showed that human leishmaniasis infection is still endemic in many regions in Sudan and highly prevalent in central and eastern Sudan, and CL is the most prevalent in the country. Males and adults were more susceptible to infection compared with females and children. However, the human leishmaniasis prevalence decreased relatively over time.