Leishmaniases in Ethiopia: a scoping review

With recent efforts to eliminate visceral leishmaniasis in East Africa, we aimed to map the breadth of research on leishmaniases in Ethiopia, one of the high-endemic countries in the region, to help understand the current literature landscape and highlight priority areas for future research.

The scoping review was conducted in accordance with the JBI Scoping Review Methodology Group's guidance and reported following Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses-Extension for Scoping Reviews guidelines.

We searched the following databases and sources: PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, Global Medicus Index, PROSPERO, ClinicalTrials.gov and the Pan African Clinical Trials Registry and known local journals.

We included studies addressing the issue of leishmaniasis in Ethiopia that were published in English language.

Two reviewers independently extracted data from each study, with conflicts resolved by a third reviewer. The identified studies were analysed using an extensive codebook, which was previously developed by this team and adapted to the Ethiopian context to classify the research into different categories.

A total of 8698 articles were identified. A stepwise review was conducted, and 639 papers were selected for inclusion. The research spans different themes and designs and has steadily increased over the past 14 years. Research on prevention and control, health systems/policies and post-kala-azar dermal leishmaniasis, as well as randomised controlled trials, was lacking. Studies on coinfections with other diseases accounted for 14% of research.

The findings underscore the growing amount of research on leishmaniasis in Ethiopia, addressing several themes and emphasising the need for more research in prevention, control, health systems/policy and high-quality studies for evidence-based treatment.