Prevalence of HTLV-1/2 infection in pregnant women in Central and South America and the Caribbean: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Prevalence of HTLV-1/2 infection in pregnant women in Central and South America and the Caribbean: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Blog Article

Background: Human T-lymphotropic viruses (HTLV)-1 infection is endemic in many countries of Central and South America and Caribbean (CSA&C).Neither screening nor surveillance programs exist for HTLV-1/2 infection among pregnant women in this region.Neither in Western read more nations with large migrant flows from HTLV-1/2 endemic regions.Methods: Systematic review and meta-analysis of the prevalence of HTLV-1/2 infection among CSA&C pregnant women.

We included studies searching EMBASE, PubMed/MEDLINE, Scopus, and Web of Science from inception to February 15, 2023.This systematic review followed Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses reporting guidelines.Results: We identified a total of 620 studies.Only 41 were finally included in the meta-analysis.

Most studies (61.0%) were from Brazil and Peru (14.6%).The total number of participants was 343,707.

The pooled prevalence of HTLV-1/2 infection among CSA&C pregnant women was 1.30% (95% CI: 0.96-1.69) using anti-HTLV-1/2 antibody screening tests.

There was a high heterogeneity (I2 = 98.6%).Confirmatory tests gave an HTLV-1 infection read more rate of 1.02% (95% CI: 0.

75-1.33).Conclusions: The prevalence of HTLV-1/2 infection among CSA&C pregnant women is 1.3%, most cases being HTLV-1.

This rate is greater than for other microbial agents regularly checked as part of antenatal screening (such as HIV, hepatitis B, or syphilis).Thus, HTLV-1/2 antenatal testing should be mandatory among CSA&C pregnant women everywhere.