Table 1.

Search strategy for PubMed

SN	Search items	Hits
1.	(((Africa* (tiab) OR Algeria (tiab) OR Angola (tiab) OR Benin (tiab) OR Botswana (tiab) OR ‘Burkina Faso’ (tiab) OR Burundi (tiab) OR Cameroon (tiab) OR ‘Canary Islands’ (tiab) OR ‘Cape Verde’ (tiab) OR ‘Central African Republic’ (tiab) OR Chad (tiab) OR Comoros (tiab) OR Congo (tiab) OR ‘Democratic Republic of Congo’ (tiab) OR Djibouti (tiab) OR Egypt (tiab) OR ‘Equatorial Guinea’ (tiab) OR Eritrea (tiab) OR Ethiopia (tiab) OR Gabon (tiab) OR Gambia (tiab) OR Ghana (tiab) OR Guinea (tiab) OR ‘Guinea Bissau’ (tiab) OR ‘Ivory Coast’ (tiab) OR ‘Cote d'Ivoire’ (tiab) OR Jamahiriya (tiab) OR Kenya (tiab) OR Lesotho (tiab) OR Liberia (tiab) OR Libya (tiab) OR Madagascar (tiab) OR Malawi (tiab) OR Mali (tiab) OR Mauritania (tiab) OR Mauritius (tiab) OR Mayotte (tiab) OR Morocco (tiab) OR Mozambique (tiab) OR Namibia (tiab) OR Niger (tiab) OR Nigeria (tiab) OR Principe (tiab) OR Reunion (tiab) OR Rwanda (tiab) OR ‘Sao Tome’ (tiab) OR Senegal (tiab) OR Seychelles (tiab) OR ‘Sierra Leone’ (tiab) OR Somalia (tiab) OR ‘South Africa’ (tiab) OR ‘South Sudan’ (tiab) OR ‘St Helena’ (tiab) OR Sudan (tiab) OR Swaziland (tiab) OR Tanzania (tiab) OR Togo (tiab) OR Tunisia (tiab) OR Uganda (tiab) OR ‘Western Sahara’ (tiab) OR Zaire (tiab) OR Zambia (tiab) OR Zimbabwe (tiab) OR ‘Central Africa’ (tiab) OR ‘Central African’ (tiab) OR ‘West Africa’ (tiab) OR ‘West African’ (tiab) OR ‘Western Africa’ (tiab) OR ‘Western African’ (tiab) OR ‘East Africa’ (tiab) OR ‘East African’ (tiab) OR ‘Eastern Africa’ (tiab) OR ‘Eastern African’ (tiab) OR ‘North Africa’ (tiab) OR ‘North African’ (tiab) OR ‘Northern Africa’ (tiab) OR ‘Northern African’ (tiab) OR ‘South African’ (tiab) OR ‘Southern Africa’ (tiab) OR ‘Southern African’ (tiab) OR ‘sub Saharan Africa’ (tiab) OR ‘sub Saharan African’ (tiab) OR ‘subSaharan Africa’ (tiab) OR ‘subSaharan African’ (tiab)) NOT (‘guinea pig’ (tiab) OR ‘guinea pigs’ (tiab) OR ‘aspergillus niger (tiab)’)))
2.	('anemia' OR 'anaemia' OR 'anemias' OR 'anaemias' OR 'hemoglobin' OR 'haemoglobin')
3.	#1 AND #2
4.	((‘Child, Preschool’(Mesh)) AND ‘Infant’(Mesh))
5.	#3 AND #4
6.	Publication date limits: from database inception to 30 September 2019, with no language restrictions