摘要
Background Primary health care settings and hospitals of low-and middle-income countries have few accessible diagnostic tools and limited laboratory and human resources capacity to identify multiple pathogens with high accu‑racy.In addition,there is a paucity of information on fever and its underlying aetiology in the adolescent and adult population in East Africa.The purpose of this study was to estimate the pooled prevalence of fever of unidentifed aetiology among adolescent and adult febrile patients seeking health care in East Africa.Methods We pursued a systematic review using readily available electronic databases(i.e.PubMed,Cumulative Index to Nursing&Allied Health Literature,Scopus,Cochrane Library and Web of Science)without language restric‑tion from inception date of the respective databases to October 31,2022.We adhered to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines.Identifed studies were screened for relevance.Further analyses based on pre-set eligibility criteria were carried out for fnal inclusion.Two reviewers independently screened and extracted data.Risk of study bias was assessed.Meta-analysis of the prevalence of fever of unidentifed aetiology was performed.Results We identifed 14,029 articles of which 25 were eligible for inclusion,reporting data from 8538 participants.The pooled prevalence of febrile cases with unidentifed aetiology was 64%[95%confdence interval(CI):51–77%,I 2=99.6%]among febrile adolescents and adults in East Africa.For the proportion of patients with identifed aetiol‑ogy,the studies documented bacterial pathogens(human bloodstream infections),bacterial zoonotic pathogens and arboviruses as the main non-malarial causative agents in East Africa.Conclusions Our study provides evidence that almost two-thirds of adolescent and adult febrile patients attending health care facilities in East Africa might receive inappropriate treatments due to unidentifed potential life-threat‑ening fever aetiology.Hence,we call for a comprehensive fever syndromic surveillance to broaden a consequential diferential diagnosis of syndromic fever and to considerably improve the course of patients’disease and treatment outcomes.
