Prevalence and factors associated with Tungiasis among school age children in Sub Saharan Africa: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Introduction: Tungiasis is an overlooked tropical disease resulting from the penetration of the skin by sand fleas. It leads to significant suffering and can be fatal, particularly affecting school age children and elders, primarily above 60 years old, in rural and urban slums across Sub-Saharan Africa. Despite its great public health consequences, the condition remains largely under reported by the scientific communities mainly in Sub Saharan African countries. Objective: To assess the prevalence of Tungiasis and associated factors among school-age children in Sub-Saharan Africa. Methods and materials: This systematic review and meta-analysis was done based on the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA 2020). Literatures were searched from a variety of databases, including PubMed, Science-Direct, Google Scholar, Hinari, and Google. The eligible studies data were extracted using Microsoft Excel and exported to statistical software, STATA version 14 for further analysis. A random-effect model was considered to estimate the prevalence of Tungiasis. The Egger test and funnel plot were used to evaluate publication bias, whereas I2 statistic was used to measure heterogeneity. The finding of this SRMA was done using 23 selected studies with 9781 study participants. Results: This review revealed that the pooled prevalence of Tungiasis was 37.86%% (95% CI: 30.95–44.77; I2 = 98.3%, P