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Systematic reviews on infectious diseases

Guest Editor(s):
Chester Kalinda: University of Global Health Equity, Rwanda
Elvis Temfack: Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Ethiopia



BMC Infectious Diseases called for submissions to our collection on Systematic reviews on infectious diseases. Systematic reviews and meta-analyses can be powerful tools able to offer a comprehensive overview of the available clinical evidence, point out research gaps in our current understanding, and be a base for decision-making in health policies. This collection aimed to gather excellent evidence-based systematic reviews following sound methodological and reporting standards.

Meet the Guest Editors

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Chester Kalinda: University of Global Health Equity, Rwanda

Dr Chester Kalinda is an Assistant Professor at University of Global Health Equity (UGHE) in Rwanda. Broadly, Chester’s research interests are in ecology and public health, with a special focus on understanding how the interactions between vectors and the environment influence infectious disease risk among humans especially those from resource constrained communities. His research interests also include neglected tropical diseases and health metrics

Elvis Temfack: Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Ethiopia

Dr Elvis Temfack is a Senior Research Officer at the Africa Center for Disease Control and Prevention in Ethiopia. During his training, HIV became a major public health issue in Sub-Saharan Africa, which stirred his passion in Central nervous system associated infections in HIV, an area in which he has published several peer-reviewed publications focused on HIV-associated cryptococcal meningitis. Currently, as a Senior Research Officer at the Africa Center for Disease Control and Prevention in Ethiopia, Elvis works to build adequate research capacity to generate evidence to target priority public health problems in Africa.  

About the Collection

BMC Infectious Diseases is calling for submissions to our collection on Systematic Reviews on infectious diseases. 

During the last decades, our society has been experiencing a constant increase in research output, resulting in the need to compile, evaluate and reassess our clinical knowledge. Systematic reviews and meta-analyses can be powerful tools able to offer a comprehensive overview of the available clinical evidence, point out research gaps in our current understanding, and be the base for decision-making in health policies. 

We welcome Systematic reviews and meta-analysis submissions covering all aspects of the prevention, diagnosis, and management of infectious and sexually transmitted diseases in humans, as well as related molecular genetics, pathophysiology, and epidemiology. The collection will not consider reviews of in vitro studies.

As with any other research article, it is crucial that systematic reviews follow a robust study design and scientifically sound methodology. Therefore, all submissions to this collection must comply with the following minimal requirements:

PRISMA GUIDELINES: The authors must submit a populated checklist and figure from the relevant reporting guidelines, including the PRISMA checklist and Flowchart Diagram or the most appropriate PRISMA extension for variations to the standard Systematic Reviews methodology. The flow diagram should be included and referenced in the main body of the text, and the checklist should be provided as an additional file. A Word file of the checklist and flow diagram can be downloaded here.     

Registration of the Systematic Review: Be registered, ideally prospectively, in an online database such as PROSPERO, INPLASY, Research Registry, OSF Registries, or another registry dedicated to Systematic Reviews.

BMC Infectious Diseases also strongly encourages that all datasets on which the conclusions of the paper rely should be available to readers. We encourage authors to ensure that their datasets are either deposited in publicly available repositories (where available and appropriate) or presented in the main manuscript or additional supporting files whenever possible. Please see Springer Nature’s information on recommended repositories.


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  1. Influenza infection is a highly preventable transmissible viral disease associated with mild upper respiratory symptoms and more severe conditions such as lethal pneumonia. Studies have shown that a broader sp...

    Authors: Rodrigo Luiz Carregaro, Alessandra N. C. P. Roscani, Augusto Cesar Sousa Raimundo, Larissa Ferreira, Tazio Vanni, Maria da Graça Salomão, Livia Fernandes Probst and Juliana Yukari K. Viscondi
    Citation: BMC Infectious Diseases 2023 23:563
    Content type: Research Published on:

  2. Evidence on the real-world effects of “Treat All” on attrition has not been systematically reviewed. We aimed to review existing literature to compare attrition 12 months after antiretroviral therapy (ART) ini...

    Authors: Richard Makurumidze, Tom Decroo, Bart K. M. Jacobs, Simbarashe Rusakaniko, Wim Van Damme, Lutgarde Lynen and Tinne Gils
    Citation: BMC Infectious Diseases 2023 23:558
    Content type: Research Published on:

  3. Despite the significant progress made in South Africa in getting millions of individuals living with HIV into care, many patients still present or re-enter care with Advanced HIV Disease (AHD). We aimed to est...

    Authors: Marcel K. Kitenge, Geoffrey Fatti, Ingrid Eshun-Wilson, Omololu Aluko and Peter Nyasulu
    Citation: BMC Infectious Diseases 2023 23:549
    Content type: Research Published on:

  4. With the emergence of coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19), several blood biomarkers have been identified, including the endothelial biomarker syndecan-1, a surface proteoglycan. In the current systematic re...

    Authors: Elina Ghondaghsaz, Amirmohammad Khalaji, Mitra Norouzi, Douglas D. Fraser, Sanam Alilou and Amir Hossein Behnoush
    Citation: BMC Infectious Diseases 2023 23:510
    Content type: Research Published on:

  5. Systematic reviews (SR) and meta-analyses (MA) have become important in addressing specific questions of clinical importance and presenting evidence from an in-depth analysis of literature and aiding clinical ...

    Authors: Chester Kalinda and Elvis Temfack
    Citation: BMC Infectious Diseases 2023 23:412
    Content type: Editorial Published on:

  6. Sanitation or sanitary workers are exposed to hepatitis virus infections because of filthy and dangerous working conditions. The current global systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to estimate the pooled ...

    Authors: Sina Tolera, Dechasa Adare Mengistu, Fekade Ketema Alemu, Abraham Geremew, Yohannes Mulugeta, Gebisa Dirirsa, Liku Muche Temesgen, Wegene Diriba, Gutema Mulatu, Tamagnu Sintie, Kefelegn Bayu and Ashenafi Berhanu
    Citation: BMC Infectious Diseases 2023 23:404
    Content type: Research Published on:

Submission Guidelines

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This Collection welcomes submission of Research Articles. Before submitting your manuscript, please ensure you have read our submission guidelines. Articles for this Collection should be submitted via our submission system, Snapp. During the submission process you will be asked whether you are submitting to a Collection, please select ["Systematic Reviews on Infectious Diseases"] from the dropdown menu.

Articles will undergo the journal’s standard peer-review process and are subject to all of the journal’s standard policies. Articles will be added to the Collection as they are published.

The Guest Editors have no competing interests with the submissions which they handle through the peer review process. The peer review of any submissions for which the Guest Editors have competing interests is handled by another Editorial Board Member who has no competing interests.