Distribution, frequency and clinical presentation of leptospirosis and coinfections: a systematic review protocol

Introduction Leptospirosis is a zoonotic disease with high prevalence in low-income and middle-income countries and tropical and subtropical regions. The clinical symptoms of the disease are similar to symptoms presented by other endemic infectious diseases that could be present simultaneously. Thus, leptospirosis could be masked by similar infections like dengue, malaria, hantavirus, melioidosis and borreliosis, among others. Therefore, leptospirosis could present itself as an under-reported infection or as a coinfection with another pathogen, as has been reported in the literature. However, there is a lack of documented evidence about the specific risk factors of leptospirosis infection, the symptoms, the coinfection’s mortality and the frequency of coinfection. Additionally, leptospirosis coinfections have not been considered a neglected public health concern. Therefore, this systematic review aims to evaluate published articles that show the risk factors associated with leptospirosis infection and coinfection with other pathogens. Methods and analysis The search process to identify eligible studies will be conducted including the LILACS, ProQuest, PubMed and Scopus databases with no restriction in terms of publication date. Also, grey literature will be included in the research. Authors will independently screen the title and abstracts of the articles identified from the search using Rayyan free software. Eligibility criteria include peer-reviewed research articles...
Source: BMJ Open - Category: General Medicine Authors: Tags: Open access, Infectious diseases Source Type: research