Shigella infection is a leading cause of diarrhea worldwide, and is responsible for over 81,000 deaths among children under five each year. Its burden and growing antibiotic resistance have led the World Health Organization to identify Shigella as a priority pathogen for vaccine development. There are many open discussions surrounding the development and rollout of a Shigella vaccine, including the pathogen subspecies that a vaccine should target and the age group by which complete immunization should be achieved.
While the burden of Shigella cases and deaths has been shown to be highest in Africa and Asia, less is known about the burden of Shigella in the Americas. With this systematic review, the START team aimed to synthesize the burden of Shigella diarrhea among children in the Americas region to inform vaccine research and development and regional policymakers. The START team searched published and pre-print articles available in six databases from January 1, 2000 through July 23, 2024. Random effects meta-analyses were conducted for subgroups of interest when relevant data from at least two studies were present. Findings include gaps in what is currently known about the distribution of Shigella in the region and suggest approaches to improve data collection and reporting moving forward. The systematic review manuscript was submitted to VeriXiv, the Foundation’s preprint server, as well as to PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases for peer-review.
You can access the VeriXiv preprint manuscript here: Burden of Shigella Among Children with Diarrhea in the Americas: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
