Prevalence of Chagas Disease in Latin-American Migrants Living in Europe: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Few studies have assessed the burden of Chagas disease in non-endemic countries and most of them are based on prevalence estimates from Latin American (LA) countries that likely differ from the prevalence in migrants living in Europe. The aim of this study was to systematically review the existing data informing current understanding of the prevalence of Chagas disease in LA migrants living in European countries. METHODS: We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of studies reporting prevalence of Chagas disease in European countries belonging to the European Union (EU) before 2004 in accordance with the MOOSE guidelines and based on the database sources MEDLINE and Global Health. No restrictions were placed on study date, study design or language of publication. The pooled prevalence was estimated using random effect models based on DerSimonian & Laird method. RESULTS: We identified 18 studies conducted in five European countries. The random effect pooled prevalence was 4.2% (95%CI:2.2-6.7%); and the heterogeneity of Chagas disease prevalence among studies was high (I2 = 97%,p<0.001). Migrants from Bolivia had the highest prevalence of Chagas disease (18.1%, 95%CI:13.9-22.7%). CONCLUSIONS: Prevalence of Chagas in LA migrants living in Europe is high, particularly in migrants from Bolivia and Paraguay. Data are highly heterogeneous dependent upon country of origin and within studies of migrants from the same country of origin. Country-specific prevalence differs from the estimates available from LA countries. Our meta-analysis provides prevalence estimates of Chagas disease that should be used to estimate the burden of disease in European countries.
Date Issued
2015-02-13
Date Acceptance
2015-01-14
Citation
PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, 2015, 9 (2)
ISSN
1935-2735
Publisher
Public Library of Science
Journal / Book Title
PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases
Volume
9
Issue
2
Copyright Statement
© 2015 Requena-Méndez et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
License URL
Subjects
Chagas Disease
Emigrants and Immigrants
Europe
Humans
Latin America
Prevalence
Transients and Migrants
Trypanosoma cruzi
Tropical Medicine
06 Biological Sciences
11 Medical And Health Sciences
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
e0003540