SynthesisTransactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene2020
Lassa fever in pregnancy: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
Synthesis in Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 38 papers, 7 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
38 citing papers in PubMed, 7 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 60 citations in OpenAlex.
- Clinical Outcomes of Severe Lassa Fever in West Africa: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2025Pooled it
- A global living systematic review and meta-analysis hub of emerging vaccines in pregnancy and childhood.Reproductive health · 2025Pooled it
- Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Female Reproductive Health Following Ebola Virus Disease.The American journal of tropical medicine and hygiene · 2025Pooled it
- Systematic Review of Avian Influenza Virus Infection and Outcomes during Pregnancy.Emerging infectious diseases · 2025Pooled it
- Ebola virus disease in pregnancy: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene · 2022Pooled it
- Clinical characterization of Lassa fever: A systematic review of clinical reports and research to inform clinical trial design.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2021Pooled it
- Systematic review and meta-analysis of the epidemiology of Lassa virus in humans, rodents and other mammals in sub-Saharan Africa.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2020Pooled it
- Safety, tolerability, and immunogenicity of INO-4500, a synthetic DNA-based vaccine against Lassa virus, in a phase 1b clinical trial in healthy Ghanaian adults.Frontiers in immunology · 2025Trial
- Pichinde virus models intrauterine infection by hemorrhagic fever-causing arenaviruses.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Lassa fever in the shadow of pregnancy - a case-control study of clinical presentation, risk factors and outcomes in Southern Nigeria.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2026Article
- Lessons in the Wake of a Lassa fever case in the Midwest U.S: epidemiology, management and preparedness gaps.BMC infectious diseases · 2026Review
- Decoding the human CD4Cell reports. Medicine · 2026Article
- Evaluation of Thermal Inactivation and Chemical Disinfection Efficacy Against Lassa Virus.Viruses · 2026Article
- Mapping the scientific landscape of Lassa virus: a 55-year bibliometric study (1970-2025).Science in One Health · 2026Article
- Guinea Pig Model for Lassa Virus Infection of Reproductive Tract and Considerations for Sexual and Vertical Transmission.Emerging infectious diseases · 2025Article
- Robust polyfunctional CD8The Journal of general virology · 2025Article
- Vaccination in pregnancy to protect the newborn.Nature reviews. Immunology · 2025Review
- Infusion of neutralization into Lassa vaccine design.Trends in immunology · 2025Review
- Safety, immunogenicity, efficacy, and effectiveness of Lassa fever vaccines in pregnant persons, children, and adolescents: a protocol for a living systematic review and meta-analysis.Reproductive health · 2025Article
- Seroprevalence and risk factors for Lassa virus infection in South-West and North-Central Nigeria: a community-based cross-sectional study.BMC infectious diseases · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Lassa fever is a zoonotic infection endemic to West Africa and is known to have adverse effects in pregnancy. We sought to synthesize and critically appraise currently available evidence on the effects of Lassa fever in pregnancy. An exhaustive bibliographic search from dates of inception to 30 September 2019 yielded 13 studies, from which individual patient data were extracted. The absolute risk of maternal death associated with Lassa fever was estimated at 33.73% (95% CI 22.05 to 46.42%, I2=72.40%, p=0.0014). The relative risk of death in pregnant women compared with non-pregnant women was estimated at 2·86 (95% CI 1.77 to 4.63, I2=27.27%, p=0.239). The formal gap analysis shows imprecise data on the risk of Lassa-related maternal and perinatal mortality and insufficient data for other pregnancy outcomes. The currently available evidence for the use of ribavirin in pregnant patients is not conclusive. With a threefold increased risk of mortality, there is a need to prioritize pregnant women as a special subgroup of interest for Lassa research. Robust prospective studies estimating the true incidence of adverse maternal and perinatal outcomes and randomized controlled trials to evaluate the efficacy of therapeutics for maternal Lassa virus infection are urgently needed.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.