Blastocystis sp. in human populations: Pooled prevalence and subtype distribution from a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Authors

Huan Li, Xin Yang, Huizhu Nan, Lei Ma

Published in

Parasitology international. Pages 103402. Sep 30, 2026. Epub Sep 30, 2026.

Abstract

Blastocystis is widely detected in human populations, yet prevalence estimates vary substantially across geographic regions, population settings, and diagnostic approaches. We systematically reviewed cross-sectional surveys published from 2015 to 2025 that investigated non-disease-selected human populations. Across 137 eligible survey units from 47 countries, 562,327 participants and 26,697 positive detections were included. The crude participant-level positivity was 4.7%, whereas the random-effects pooled prevalence across published surveys was 17.9% (95% CI: 13.9%-22.6%; 95% PI: 0.7%-87.5%; I² = 99.7%). Regional pooled estimates were 44.2% in Africa, 36.7% in the Americas, 8.4% in Asia, and 7.2% in Europe; however, these comparisons should be interpreted descriptively because substantial residual heterogeneity and study-level confounding remained. Population-group differences were not statistically significant (P = 0.074), while the three broad diagnostic-strategy groups were summarized descriptively because multimodal protocols were heterogeneous. Sensitivity analyses restricted to population-based surveys and community/household surveys yielded pooled estimates of 15.8% and 13.0%, respectively. Among 62 studies reporting molecular subtype information, 5220 isolates were assigned single subtypes, while 658 mixed-subtype detections from 18 studies were summarized separately. ST3, ST1, and ST2 were among the predominant reported subtypes. These findings summarize available published surveillance data rather than a population-weighted global burden estimate and highlight the need for standardized sampling frameworks, harmonized molecular workflows, and integrated One Health investigations to clarify Blastocystis epidemiology and transmission ecology.

PMID:
42815624
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 01 Oct 2026.

Read full publication at:
Please sign in to see all details.

Stats

1-terrible, 9-excellent. How would you rate this publication? Sign in in to submit your rating.

Post a comment

You need to be signed in to post comments. You can sign in here.

Comments

There are no comments yet.