SynthesisPLoS neglected tropical diseases2020
Systematic review and meta-analysis of the epidemiology of Lassa virus in humans, rodents and other mammals in sub-Saharan Africa.
Synthesis in PLoS neglected tropical diseases, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 34 papers, 5 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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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
34 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 63 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
- Lassa fever in West Africa: a systematic review and meta-analysis of attack rates, case fatality rates and risk factors.BMC public health · 2025Pooled it
- Assessing the Environmental Drivers of Lassa Fever in West Africa: A Systematic Review.Viruses · 2025Pooled 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
- Worldwide epidemiology of Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever Virus in humans, ticks and other animal species, a systematic review and meta-analysis.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2021Pooled it
- Assessing Evidence to Guide Primary Prevention of Pathogen X.Emerging infectious diseases · 2026Article
- Development and validation of two economical and flexible immunoassays for detecting antibodies against LCMV in mouse serum.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Evaluation of Thermal Inactivation and Chemical Disinfection Efficacy Against Lassa Virus.Viruses · 2026Article
- Evidence for Neuroinvasive Lassa Virus Infection in Pediatric Patients: Initial Findings and Implications.The Journal of infectious diseases · 2026Article
- Presence of Lassa Virus RNA in Cerebrospinal Fluid Indicating Neuroinvasive Lassa Fever in Pediatric Patients From Edo State, Nigeria.The Journal of infectious diseases · 2026Article
- Serological cross-reactivity and identification of an acute Seoul orthohantavirus case in a dengue outbreak from Vietnam.Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene · 2026Article
- Genomic epidemiology and evolutionary analysis of Lassa virus from small mammals suggest bidirectional viral movement across humans and animals.Virus evolution · 2026Article
- A One Health trial design to accelerate Lassa fever vaccines.Nature medicine · 2026Article
- Serosurveillance Identifies an Endemic Hotspot of Lassa Fever in Faranah, Upper Guinea.The Journal of infectious diseases · 2025Article
- Expansion of myeloid suppressor cells and suppression of Lassa virus-specific T cells during fatal Lassa fever.PLoS pathogens · 2025Article
- The First Imported Case of Lassa Fever - China, 2024.China CDC weekly · 2025Article
- The role of climatic changes in the emergence and re-emergence of infectious diseases: bibliometric analysis and literature-supported studies on zoonoses.One health outlook · 2025Review
- Viral diversity in wild and urban rodents of Yunnan Province, China.Emerging microbes & infections · 2024Article
- 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
- Modelling Lassa virus dynamics in West AfricanJournal of the Royal Society, Interface · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
23 authors at 6 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Accurate data on the Lassa virus (LASV) human case fatality rate (CFR) and the prevalence of LASV in humans, rodents and other mammals are needed for better planning of actions that will ultimately reduce the burden of LASV infection in sub-Saharan Africa. In this systematic review with meta-analysis, we searched PubMed, Scopus, Africa Journal Online, and African Index Medicus from 1969 to 2020 to obtain studies that reported enough data to calculate LASV infection CFR or prevalence. Study selection, data extraction, and risk of bias assessment were conducted independently. We extracted all measures of current, recent, and past infections with LASV. Prevalence and CFR estimates were pooled using a random-effect meta-analysis. Factors associated with CFR, prevalence, and sources of between-study heterogeneity were determined using subgroup and metaregression analyses. This review was registered with PROSPERO, CRD42020166465. We initially identified 1,399 records and finally retained 109 reports that contributed to 291 prevalence records from 25 countries. The overall CFR was 29.7% (22.3-37.5) in humans. Pooled prevalence of LASV infection was 8.7% (95% confidence interval: 6.8-10.8) in humans, 3.2% (1.9-4.6) in rodents, and 0.7% (0.0-2.3) in other mammals. Subgroup and metaregression analyses revealed a substantial statistical heterogeneity explained by higher prevalence in tissue organs, in case-control, in hospital outbreak, and surveys, in retrospective studies, in urban and hospital setting, in hospitalized patients, and in West African countries. This study suggests that LASV infections is an important cause of death in humans and that LASV are common in humans, rodents and other mammals in sub-Saharan Africa. These estimates highlight disparities between sub-regions, and population risk profiles. Western Africa, and specific key populations were identified as having higher LASV CFR and prevalence, hence, deserving more attention for cost-effective preventive interventions.
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Registered trials
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.