Abstract
Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is one of the most common viruses to infect children worldwide and is the leading cause of lower respiratory tract illness (LRI) in infants. This study aimed to conduct a systematic review by collecting and reviewing all the published knowledge about the epidemiology of RSV in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Therefore, we systematically searched four databases; Embase, Medline, Scopus, and Cochrane databases from 2001 to 2019 to collect all the information related to the RSV prevalence, genotype distribution, and seasonality in children in MENA region. Our search strategy identified 598 studies, of which 83 met our inclusion criteria, which cover the past 19 years (2000–2019). Odds ratio (OR) and confidence interval (CI) were calculated to measure the association between RSV prevalence, gender, and age distribution. An overall prevalence of 24.4% (n = 17,106/69,981) of respiratory infections was recorded for RSV. The highest RSV prevalence was reported in Jordan (64%, during 2006–2007) and Israel (56%, 2005–2006). RSV A subgroup was more prevalent (62.9%; OR = 2.9, 95%CI = 2.64–3.13) than RSV B. RSV was most prevalent in children who were less than 12 months old (68.6%; OR = 4.7, 95%CI = 2.6–8.6) and was higher in males (59.6%; OR = 2.17, 95%CI = 1.2–3.8) than in female infants. Finally, the highest prevalence was recorded during winter seasons in all countries, except for Pakistan. RSV prevalence in the MENA region is comparable with the global one (24.4% vs. 22%). This first comprehensive report about RSV prevalence in the MENA region and our data should be important to guide vaccine introduction decisions and future evaluation.
Highlights
Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is a common pathogen that causes acute lower respiratory infections (ALRI)
We used a combination of controlled keywords; “respiratory syncytial virus”, “RSV”, “prevalence”, “incidence”, “epidemiology”, “Middle East”, and “individual country name from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region”
A total of 598 research records, from 16 MENA region countries, were initially identified by electronic literature searches. 387 research records were excluded after research database duplication
Summary
Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is a common pathogen that causes acute lower respiratory infections (ALRI). The virus is the leading cause of bronchiolitis and pneumonia, among children younger than one year of age. The WHO estimates that the annual burden of RSV-related ALRI is 33 million globally, with about 3 million hospitalizations and 59,600 in-hospital deaths [1]. About half of these RSV hospitalizations and in-hospital deaths were recorded in infants aged younger than 6 months [2]. More than 93% of all RSV related ALRI and 99% of RSV related deaths occur in developing countries [2]. It is suggested that poor hygiene and lack of access to basic medical care results in high infection and complication rates
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