Citation

Mullins M. East Mediterr. Health J. 2023; 29(8): 673-675.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2023, World Health Organization)

DOI

10.26719/emhj.23.102

PMID

37698223

Abstract

In an article published by EMHJ Vol. 28 No. 12 of 2022, Suhita et al. attempted a systematic review and meta- analysis of the prevalence of neurotoxic and hemotoxic snakebites globally (1). The authors used the right resources for the review but erred in using systematic review to answer an epidemiological question that is not amenable to this method. The result is the spurious conclusion that North America has the highest prevalence of hemotoxic and neurotoxic snakebites in the world. Their conclusions conflict with WHO data showing that the burden falls most heavily in Asia and Africa (2,3).

They reviewed 35 articles from USA and overlooked other North American snakebite literature meeting their search criteria (4-9). Few of the articles cited measured prevalence by systematic data collection but described specific cohorts of patients defined by their envenomation or geography.

Language: en

Keywords

Humans; Prevalence; *Snake Bites/epidemiology