SynthesisPloS one2019
Burden of fungal asthma in Africa: A systematic review and meta-analysis.
Synthesis in PloS one, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 29 papers.
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Who cites it
29 citing papers in PubMed.
- Helminth Immune Modulation and Invasive Fungal Infections in Sub-Saharan Africa.Journal of fungi (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Prevalence of asthma and wheeze among preschool and school-aged children in Africa: A meta-analysis.Public health challenges · 2024Review
- Asthma prevalence among United States population insights from NHANES data analysis.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Aspergillus sensitisation detection using point-of-care lateral flow assay in moderate to severe asthma.Medical mycology · 2023Article
- Prevalence and predictors of Aspergillus seropositivity and chronic pulmonary aspergillosis in an urban tertiary hospital in Sierra Leone: A cross-sectional study.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2023Article
- Diagnostic options for pulmonary fungal diseases in Africa.ERJ open research · 2023Article
- Burden of fungal infections in Kenya.Mycology · 2023Article
- Environmental allergen reduction in asthma management: an overview.Frontiers in allergy · 2023Review
- Current situation of fungal diseases in Eritrea.Mycoses · 2022Article
- Retrospective cross-sectional study of asthma severity in adult patients at the Jimma Medical Center, Ethiopia.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- Fungal Allergen and Mold Allergy Diagnosis: Role and Relevance ofJournal of fungi (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Review
- Allergy and Household Living Conditions among Adolescents Living near Gold Mine Tailing Dumps in the Gauteng and North West Provinces of South Africa.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Article
- Fungal allergic sensitisation in young rural Zimbabwean children: Gut mycobiome and seroreactivity characteristics.Current research in microbial sciences · 2021Article
- The Young Age and Plant-Based Diet Hypothesis for Low SARS-CoV-2 Infection and COVID-19 Pandemic in Sub-Saharan Africa.Plant foods for human nutrition (Dordrecht, Netherlands) · 2021Review
- Epidemiology of fungal diseases in Africa: A review of diagnostic drivers.Current medical mycology · 2021Article
- Genetic Susceptibility to Fungal Infections and Links to Human Ancestry.Frontiers in genetics · 2021Review
- Evaluation of an Aspergillus IgG/IgM lateral flow assay for serodiagnosis of fungal asthma in Uganda.PloS one · 2021Article
- Deep fungal infections diagnosed by histology in Uganda: a 70-year retrospective study.Medical mycology · 2020Article
- The role of antifungals in the management of patients with severe asthma.Clinical and translational allergy · 2020Review
- Assessing the nature of asthma in African epidemiological studies: a scoping review protocol.Systematic reviews · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
10 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundAsthma is one of the neglected diseases in Africa with a high prevalence. Allergic fungal diseases have been reported to complicate asthma progression and treatment outcomes. However, data about fungal asthma and its associated complications are limited in Africa. We aimed to estimate the burden of fungal asthma among adults and children in Africa using a systematic review.
methodsWe first engaged the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) to highlight the trend in morbidity and mortality attributed to asthma in Africa. We then searched PubMed, HINARI and Google Scholar for all studies of any design focusing on fungal asthma in any African country. Languages were restricted to English and French, but not year of publication. We estimated the weighted prevalence of allergic fungal infections among asthmatics with a 95% CI and pooled the results using a random effects model. This study is registered with PROSPERO, number CRD42019117319.
resultsThe IHME data showed that there has been a gradual increase in morbidity and mortality due to asthma in African adults with a prevalence of 4%. Our search retrieved 5233 citations. We retained 20 studies that met our selection criteria. These were from 13 African countries published between 1967 and 2018. There were eight cross-sectional studies and twelve review articles. The average asthma prevalence in Africa was 6% from these studies. The prevalence of fungal sensitisation was relatively high (3-52%) in the asthmatic population with an average of 28% and a pooled estimate of 23.3%, mostly due to Aspergillus species. Prevalence of Allergic bronchopulmonary apsergillosis was estimated at 1.6-21.2%. Diagnosis of fungal allergy was mostly made by skin prick tests. There was no data on the use of medication to manage fungal asthma. None of the studies evaluated the association between fungal allergy and asthma severity. Data were lacking in children.
conclusionThere is a high prevalence of fungal sensitization among Africans with asthma. Fungal asthma is a significant problem in Africa but there remains a paucity of data on the epidemiology and associated complications. There is urgent need for national epidemiological studies to estimate the actual burden of fungal asthma in Africa.
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