Paul G. Allen School for Global Animal Health, Washington State University, Pullman, USA.
Washington State University Global Health Program Kenya, Nairobi, Kenya.
BMC Infect Dis. 2018 Nov 3;18(1):545. doi: 10.1186/s12879-018-3443-8.
The East African region is endemic with multiple zoonotic diseases and is one of the hotspots for emerging infectious zoonotic diseases with reported multiple outbreaks of epidemic diseases such as Ebola, Marburg and Rift Valley Fever. Here we present a systematic assessment of published research on zoonotic diseases in the region and thesis research in Kenya to understand the regional research focus and trends in publications, and estimate proportion of theses research transitioning to peer-reviewed journal publications.
We searched PubMed, Google Scholar and African Journals Online databases for publications on 36 zoonotic diseases identified to have occurred in the East Africa countries of Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda and Uganda, for the period between 1920 and 2017. We searched libraries and queried online repositories for masters and PhD theses on these diseases produced between 1970 and 2016 in five universities and two research institutions in Kenya.
We identified 771 journal articles on 22, and 168 theses on 21 of the 36 zoonotic diseases investigated. Research on zoonotic diseases increased exponentially with the last 10 years of our study period contributing more than half of all publications 460 (60%) and theses 102 (61%) retrieved. Endemic diseases were the most studied accounting for 656 (85%) and 150 (89%) of the publication and theses studies respectively, with publications on epidemic diseases associated with outbreaks reported in the region or elsewhere. Epidemiological studies were the most common study types but limited to cross-sectional studies while socio-economics were the least studied. Only 11% of the theses research transitioned to peer-review publications, taking an average of 2.5 years from theses production to manuscript publication.
Our findings demonstrate increased attention to zoonotic diseases in East Africa but reveal the need to expand the scope, focus and quality of studies to adequately address the public health, social and economic threats posed by zoonoses.
东非地区流行多种人畜共患疾病，是新发感染性人畜共患疾病的热点地区之一，曾多次爆发埃博拉、马尔堡和裂谷热等传染病。本研究系统评估了该地区已发表的人畜共患病研究和肯尼亚的论文研究，以了解该地区出版物的研究重点和趋势，并估计有多少论文研究转化为同行评议期刊出版物。
我们在 PubMed、Google Scholar 和 African Journals Online 数据库中搜索了 1920 年至 2017 年间在布隆迪、埃塞俄比亚、肯尼亚、坦桑尼亚、卢旺达和乌干达等东非国家发生的 36 种人畜共患疾病的已发表文献和论文。我们在肯尼亚的五所大学和两个研究机构的图书馆中进行了检索，并在网上数据库中查询了 1970 年至 2016 年期间关于这些疾病的硕士和博士论文。
我们共发现了 771 篇关于 22 种人畜共患疾病的期刊文章和 168 篇关于 36 种人畜共患疾病中的 21 种疾病的论文。人畜共患疾病的研究呈指数级增长，我们研究期间的最后 10 年贡献了超过一半的出版物 460 篇（60%）和论文 102 篇（61%）。地方性疾病是研究最多的疾病，分别占出版物和论文研究的 656 篇（85%）和 150 篇（89%），其中包括该地区或其他地区报告的暴发相关传染病。流行病学研究是最常见的研究类型，但仅限于横断面研究，而社会经济学研究则最少。只有 11%的论文研究转化为同行评议出版物，从论文发表到手稿发表平均需要 2.5 年时间。
我们的研究结果表明，东非地区对人畜共患疾病的关注度有所提高，但也表明需要扩大研究范围、重点和质量，以充分应对人畜共患疾病对公共卫生、社会和经济造成的威胁。
