Table 4.
Pooled proportions of HSV-2 virus detection in clinically diagnosed GUD and in laboratory-confirmed genital herpes in Europe.
| Population type | Outcome measures |
Sample size |
Proportion of HSV-2 detection (%) |
Pooled proportion of HSV-2 detection (%) |
Heterogeneity measures |
|||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total n | Total N |
Range | Median | Mean (95% CI) | Qa (p-value) | I2b (%) (95% CI) |
Prediction Intervalc (%) | |
| Patients with clinically diagnosed GUD | ||||||||
| Sex | ||||||||
| Womend | 2 | 201 | - | - | 23.9 (17.4–31.1) | - | - | - |
| Mend | 2 | 153 | - | - | 17.6 (11.8–24.1) | - | - | - |
| Mixed | 11 | 3819 | 2.0–48.1 | 22.3 | 22.2 (13.3–32.6) | 282.9 (p < 0.001) | 96.5 (95.0–97.5) | 0.0–66.0 |
| All patients with GUD | 15 | 4173 | 2.0–48.1 | 20.9 | 22.0 (15.3–29.6) | 300.1 (p < 0.001) | 95.3 (93.6–96.6) | 1.2–57.2 |
| Patients with laboratory-confirmed genital herpes | ||||||||
| Sex | ||||||||
| Women | 51 | 7368 | 12.0–92.0 | 54.5 | 55.4 (50.5–60.2) | 692.0 (p < 0.001) | 92.8 (91.3–94.0) | 24.3–84.4 |
| Men | 48 | 5190 | 25.0–96.0 | 70.7 | 69.8 (65.2–74.2) | 580.7 (p < 0.001) | 91.9 (90.1–93.4) | 38.6–93.5 |
| Mixed | 84 | 10,765 | 16.7–100 | 71.4 | 69.7 (64.6–74.6) | 2227.9 (p < 0.001) | 96.3 (95.8–96.7) | 23.0–99.7 |
| Age | ||||||||
| <25 years | 7 | 1638 | 32.8–70.0 | 42.5 | 42.4 (35.3–49.7) | 25.3 (p < 0.001) | 76.3 (50.2–88.7) | 22.0–64.2 |
| ≥25 years | 15 | 1865 | 44.3–90.3 | 60.0 | 62.1 (56.0–68.0) | 57.5 (p < 0.001) | 75.7 (59.8–85.3) | 38.7–83.0 |
| Mixed | 161 | 19,820 | 12.0–100 | 68.2 | 67.2 (63.8–70.6) | 3317.0 (p < 0.001) | 95.2 (94.7–95.6) | 25.3–97.5 |
| Genital herpes episode status | ||||||||
| First episode | 57 | 9135 | 12.0–92.8 | 52.0 | 52.3 (47.7–56.8) | 643.6 (p < 0.001) | 91.3 (89.5–92.8) | 21.7–82.0 |
| Recurrent episode | 13 | 1907 | 22.7–96.0 | 85.0 | 83.2 (73.2–91.2) | 134.9 (p < 0.001) | 91.1 (86.6–94.1) | 37.9–100 |
| Unspecified status | 113 | 12,281 | 24.8–100 | 71.0 | 70.6 (66.9–74.1) | 1863.1 (p < 0.001) | 94.0 (93.2–94.7) | 32.7–97.1 |
| European subregion/country | ||||||||
| Southern Europee | 20 | 1881 | 24.8–100 | 77.6 | 75.3 (64.4–84.9) | 636.3 (p < 0.001) | 97.0 (96.2–97.6) | 23.4–100 |
| Western Europe | 11 | 1016 | 45.6–94.2 | 77.3 | 74.2 (63.3–83.9) | 96.9 (p < 0.001) | 89.7 (83.6–93.5) | 32.5–99.6 |
| Northern Europe | 142 | 20,141 | 12.0–96.0 | 67.1 | 66.1 (62.8–69.4) | 2776.4 (p < 0.001) | 94.9 (94.4–95.4) | 27.7–95.4 |
| Israel | 10 | 285 | 25.0–52.4 | 35.0 | 33.5 (27.9–39.2) | 6.5 (p = 0.689) | 0.0 (0.0–62.4) | 27.0–40.2 |
| Sample size | ||||||||
| <200 | 49 | 2032 | 12.0–94.3 | 58.7 | 57.1 (50.1–64.0) | 512.6 (p < 0.001) | 90.6 (88.5–92.4) | 13.6–95.0 |
| ≥200 | 134 | 21,291 | 22.7–100 | 68.3 | 68.8 (65.5–72.1) | 3423.9 (p < 0.001) | 96.1 (95.7–96.5) | 30.2–96.6 |
| Year of publication category | ||||||||
| <2000 | 50 | 4179 | 25.0–100 | 71.0 | 71.6 (65.9–76.9) | 754.2 (p < 0.001) | 93.5 (92.2–94.6) | 30.4–98.6 |
| 2000–2010 | 87 | 13,125 | 12.0–100 | 64.5 | 64.8 (59.6–69.8) | 1818.2 (p < 0.001) | 95.3 (94.6–95.8) | 19.2–98.3 |
| >2010 | 46 | 6019 | 16.7–92.8 | 63.8 | 61.7 (57.1–66.2) | 805.8 (p < 0.001) | 94.4 (93.3–95.4) | 32.2–87.3 |
| Year of data collection category | ||||||||
| <1995 | 69 | 8285 | 25.0–100 | 68.2 | 68.2 (63.0–73.2) | 1728.6 (p < 0.001) | 96.1 (95.5–96.6) | 25.2–98.2 |
| 1995–2005 | 68 | 9692 | 12.0–100 | 72.7 | 67.6 (61.8–73.2) | 1355.0 (p < 0.001) | 95.1 (94.3–95.7) | 21.5–99.2 |
| >2005 | 46 | 5346 | 16.7–92.8 | 62.2 | 59.7 (55.1–64.2) | 456.1 (p < 0.001) | 90.1 (87.7–92.1) | 31.0–85.3 |
| All patients with genital herpes | 183 | 23,323 | 12.0–100.0 | 66.7 | 66.0 (62.9–69.1) | 3944.1 (p < 0.001) | 95.4 (95.0–95.8) | 25.2–96.5 |
Abbreviations: CI = Confidence interval, GUD = Genital ulcer disease, HSV-2 = Herpes simplex virus type 2.
Q: The Cochran's Q statistic is a measure assessing the existence of heterogeneity in proportion of HSV-2 virus detection.
I2: A measure assessing the magnitude of between-study variation that is due to true differences in proportion of HSV-2 virus detection across studies, rather than sampling variation.
Prediction interval: A measure quantifying the distribution 95% interval of true proportions of HSV-2 virus detection around the estimated pooled mean.
No meta-analysis was done due to the small number of studies (n < 3).
Southern Europe includes one measure from Eastern Europe.