Prevalence of Enterobius vermicularis among Children in Iran: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

OBJECTIVES: Enterobius vermicularis is a parasitic disease that is common in crowded areas such as schools and kindergartens. Primary investigations of electronic evidence have reported different prevalences of E. vermicularis in Iran. Therefore, we aimed to estimate the total prevalence of this infection among Iranian children using a meta-analysis. METHODS: Relevant studies were identified in national and international databases. We selected eligible papers for meta-analysis after investigating titles, abstracts, and full texts; assessing study quality; and applying inclusion/exclusion criteria. Data were extracted by two independent researchers. The results were combined using a random effects model in Stata v. 11 software. RESULTS: Among 19 eligible articles including 11,676 participants, the prevalences of E. vermicularis among all children, boys, and girls were 1.2%–66.1%, 2.3%–65.5%, and 1.7%–65.5%, respectively. Pooled prevalences (95% confidence interval) of E. vermicularis among all children, boys, and girls were 17.2% (12.6%–21.8%), 17.2% (12.6%–21.8%), and 16.9% (9.03%–24.8%), respectively. CONCLUSION: This meta-analysis showed that a great majority of Iranian children are infected with E. vermicularis, possibly due to poor public health.

prevalence of herpes simplex virus type 1 and 2 infection in Iran: a meta-analysis

Background: Seroepidemiologic studies indicate a high prevalence of herpes simplex virus [HSV] infection. This infection leads to ophthalmic, dermatologic, oral, neurologic, vaginal and cervical problems. Different studies have been carried out to estimate the HSV seroprevalence in Iran. Combining the results of these studies would be useful for health policy-making

Objective: This study aims to estimate the pooled prevalence of HSV infection using meta-analysis

Materials and Methods: Using relevant keywords, national and international data banks were searched. Restricting the search strategy, excluding duplicates and investigating the titles and abstracts, relevant articles were identified

To increase the search sensitivity, the lists of references were investigated. To find un-published studies, specialized experts as well as research centers were interviewed

The heterogeneity between the results was assessed using Cochrane test and I-squared indicator

The pooled prevalence of HSV infection was estimated using random effects model

Results: We recruited 33 eligible papers investigated 7762 individuals

The total prevalences [95% confidence intervals] of HSV1, HSV2 and HSV infections were estimated as of 42.04% [20.9-63.1], 6.5% [4.7-8.2] and 25.7% [8.8-42.5] respectively

Conclusion: This meta-analysis showed that the HSV2 seroprevalence among Iranian people is considerably lower than HSV1 infection

[ effectiveness of contact thermography in the diagnosis]

Making decisions on buying and using different diagnostic and therapeutic equipments, require collection and analysis of appropriate information and performing a comprehensive systematic studies considering the safety, effectiveness and cost effectiveness of the technologies. The current study was designed to evaluate the effectiveness of contact thermography technique in the diagnosis of different diseases. This study was conducted as a systematic review. All of the relevant databases, bibliography of related papers, and companies' websites were searched using appropriate search strategies and keywords. To evaluate the quality of selected papers, CASP tool was applied by two experts and their choices were discussed to reach the final decision. In this study, 308 papers were recovered in total using different databases and search techniques. Considering the research selection criteria, 14 papers were recognized as suitable and categorized into three groups of: papers related to the breast cancer, DVT and others. The results show although contact thermography is a safe, rapid and cheap technique to be used in screening and diagnosis of different diseases, current studies do not show any acceptable diagnostic value compared to other diagnostic techniques. It is recommended to use the contact thermography as a complementary technique. More research is proposed to be performed in this area