Knowledge gaps of STIs in Africa; Systematic review

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 14; no. 9; p. e0213224
• Main Authors: Badawi, Marwan M, SalahEldin, Maryam A, Idris, Alaa B, Hasabo, Elfatih A, Osman, Zeinab H, Osman, Widad M
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 12.09.2019; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Africa - epidemiology; Africans; Anopheles; Beliefs, opinions and attitudes; Biology and Life Sciences; Child; Condoms; Disease transmission; Evaluation; Female; Gonorrhea; Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; Hepatitis B; Hepatitis C virus; HIV; Humans; Male; Medical research; Medicine and Health Sciences; Middle Aged; Papillomavirus infections; People and Places; Public Health Surveillance; Public opinion; Sexually transmitted diseases; Sexually Transmitted Diseases - diagnosis; Sexually Transmitted Diseases - epidemiology; Sexually Transmitted Diseases - etiology; Syphilis; Young Adult; Africa; South Africa
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0213224

Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) are ambiguous burden of tremendous health, social and economic consequences. The current systematic review was conducted in order to determine awareness and knowledge of Africans toward sexually transmitted infections, not only concerning HIV/AIDS, but also other STIs such as gonorrhea, syphilis, HBV, HCV and HPV. A systematic review of literature was conducted, studies were retrieved and selected after fulfilling the inclusion criteria as well as passing the assessment procedure. Related data was extracted, quantitative analysis was conducted among participants who responded to questions related to HIV, HBV, HCV, HPV or STIs knowledge, sensitivity analysis as well as subgroup analysis were also conducted. Seventy four articles addressing knowledge among 35 African countries were included and 136 questions were analyzed and synthesized. The question "does using condom reduces HIV transmission?" was answered by 1,316,873 Africans in 35 countries, 66.8% [95% Cl; 62.6, 70.9] answered yes. While the question "is sexual contact a possible route of HBV transmission?" was answered by 7,490 participants in 5 countries; 42.5% [95% Cl; 20.4, 64.7] answered yes. The differences observed among populations are highlighting the possibility for improvement by directing light toward specific populations as well as addressing specific awareness knowledge to ensure that the general as well as the related specific preventive knowledge is improved.