Prevalence of Entamoeba histolytica in Iran during 1988 to 2009: Systematic review and meta-analyses

Intestinal parasitic infections are very important for health system in many countries. No published meta-analyses have been assessed in Iran about determination of prevalence of Entamoeba histolytica. Using the main keywords of amebiasis including E. histolytica, prevalence, Iran and intestinal parasites, we searched databases such as Iranmedex, Magiran, Irandoc, Pubmed and Google scholar, and 64 articles were screened. Thirty-two (32) studies were eligible in methodology selected and entered into the statistical test. Variants of each study were obtained using binomial distribution. Heterogeneity of study was checked using I-2 index and data were analyzed using random effect model. In total of 32 papers, 234570 people have been surveyed and the prevalence rate of E. histolytica obtained 1.3% (95% confidence interval, 1.1 to 1.4) in Iran. Prevalence rate of 2.5 and 0.8% in rural and urban area were obtained, respectively. The highest prevalence rate was obtained as 3% in sought of Iran for E. histolytica. The prevalence rate of amebiasis was 1.1 and 1% among women and men, respectively. Therefore, prevalence rate of E. histolytica in some regions of Iran is high; controlling and preventing applications are necessary and improvement of society hygiene level using education can reduce incidence rate.