Journal article
Lack of evidence for ribavirin treatment of Lassa fever in systematic review of published and unpublished studies
- Abstract:
- Ribavirin has been used widely to treat Lassa fever in West Africa since the 1980s. However, few studies have systematically appraised the evidence for its use. We conducted a systematic review of published and unpublished literature retrieved from electronic databases and gray literature from inception to March 8, 2022. We identified 13 studies of the comparative effectiveness of ribavirin versus no ribavirin treatment on mortality outcomes, including unpublished data from a study in Sierra Leone provided through a US Freedom of Information Act request. Although ribavirin was associated with decreased mortality rates, results of these studies were at critical or serious risk for bias when appraised using the ROBINS-I tool. Important risks for bias related to lack of control for confounders, immortal time bias, and missing outcome data. Robust evidence supporting the use of ribavirin in Lassa fever is lacking. Well-conducted clinical trials to elucidate the effectiveness of ribavirin for Lassa fever are needed.
- Publication status:
- Published
- Peer review status:
- Peer reviewed
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(Preview, Version of record, pdf, 2.4MB, Terms of use)
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- Publisher copy:
- 10.3201/eid2808.211787
Authors
- Publisher:
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
- Journal:
- Emerging Infectious Diseases More from this journal
- Volume:
- 28
- Issue:
- 8
- Pages:
- 1559-1568
- Publication date:
- 2022-08-06
- Acceptance date:
- 2022-05-06
- DOI:
- EISSN:
-
1080-6059
- ISSN:
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1080-6040
- Pmid:
-
35876478
- Language:
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English
- Keywords:
- Pubs id:
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1273237
- Local pid:
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pubs:1273237
- Deposit date:
-
2022-08-16
Terms of use
- Copyright holder:
- Cheng et al.
- Copyright date:
- 2022
- Rights statement:
- © 2022 The Author(s). All materials published in Emerging Infectious Diseases, including text, figures, tables, and photographs, are in the public domain and can be reprinted or used without permission with proper citation. All content is freely available without charge to the user or their institution. In accordance with the Budapest Open Access Initiative definition of open access, users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author. Because the journal is in the public domain, its usage policy also conforms to conditions set forth by Creative Commons.
- Licence:
- CC Attribution (CC BY)
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