Prevalence of human bocavirus infections in Europe. A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Abstract

Human bocaviruses (HBoVs) are recently described as human emergent viruses, especially in young children. In this study we undertook a systematic review and meta-analysis to estimate their prevalence in Europe. PubMed, Web of Science and Scopus databases were systematically screened for clinical studies, up to October 2020. Study eligibility criteria were primary full-text articles from clinical studies, conducted using valid screening test methods and published in peer-reviewed journals, in English or Spanish and from European countries. The overall pooled prevalence, prevalence by country as well as the prevalence of HBoV as a single or co-pathogen were estimated using a random-effects model. Subgroup and meta-regression analyses explored potential sources of heterogeneity in the data. A total of 35 studies involving 32,656 subjects from 16 European countries met the inclusion criteria. Heterogeneity (I2 = 97.0%, p <0.01) was seen among studies; HBoV prevalence varied from 2.0% to 45.69% with a pooled estimate of 9.57% (95%CI 7.66 - 11.91%). The HBoV prevalence both as a single infection (3.99%; 95%CI 2.99 - 5.31%) or as co-infection with other viruses (5.06%; 95%CI 3.88 - 6.58%) was also analyzed. On a geographic level, prevalence by country did not show statistical differences, ranging from 3.24% (Greece) to 21.05% (Denmark). An odds ratio analysis was also included in order to evaluate the relevance of the variable age as a risk factor of HBoV infection in children <5 years old. The OR value of 1.77 (95%CI 1.13 - 2.77; p<0.01) indicated that being <5 years old is a risk factor for HBoV infection. This study showed that HBoV has a moderate prevalence among European countries. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.