2018/04/27 by Michelle M. Haby, Mariona Pinart, Vanessa Elías +1 · 1 citation
Medicine · #Asymptomatic #Biology #Environmental health #Epidemiology #Infectious Encephalopathies and Encephalitis #Internal medicine #MEDLINE #Medicine #Meta-analysis #Mosquito-borne diseases and control #Observational study #Pediatrics #Population #Systematic review #Viral Infections and Outbreaks Research #Virology #Virus #Zika virus
paper · pdf · doi:10.2471/blt.17.201541
openalex publication_date 2018/04/27 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/04
OBJECTIVE: To conduct a systematic review to estimate the prevalence of asymptomatic Zika virus infection in the general population and in specific population groups. METHODS: We searched PubMed®, Embase® and LILACS online databases from inception to 26 January 2018. We included observational epidemiological studies where laboratory testing was used to confirm positive exposure of participants to Zika virus and in which Zika virus symptom status was also recorded. We excluded studies in which having symptoms of Zika virus was a criterion for inclusion. The main outcome assessed was percentage of all Zika virus-positive participants who were asymptomatic. We used a quality-effects approach and the double arcsine transformation for the meta-analysis. FINDINGS: = 99%) suggests that the pooled prevalence of asymptomatic Zika virus-positive participants was probably not a robust estimate. Analysis based on subgroups of the population (general population, returned travellers, blood donors, adults with Guillain-Barré syndrome, pregnant women and babies with microcephaly) was not able to explain the heterogeneity. Funnel and Doi plots showed major asymmetry, suggesting selection bias or true heterogeneity. CONCLUSION: Better-quality research is needed, using standardized methods, to determine the true prevalence of asymptomatic Zika virus and whether it varies between populations or over time.