Zika virus infection as a cause of congenital brain abnormalities and Guillain-Barré syndrome: From systematic review to living systematic review [version 1]

Counotte, Michel; Egli-Gany, Dianne; Riesen, Maurane; Abraha, Million; Porgo, Teegwendé Valérie; Wang, Jingying; Low, Nicola (2018). Zika virus infection as a cause of congenital brain abnormalities and Guillain-Barré syndrome: From systematic review to living systematic review [version 1]. F1000Research, 7, p. 196. F1000 Research Ltd 10.12688/f1000research.13704.1

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The Zika virus (ZIKV) outbreak in the Americas has caused international concern due to neurological sequelae linked to the infection, such as microcephaly and Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS). The World Health Organization stated that there is "sufficient evidence to conclude that Zika virus is a cause of congenital abnormalities and is a trigger of GBS". This conclusion was based on a systematic review of the evidence published until 30.05.2016. Since then, the body of evidence has grown substantially, leading to this update of that systematic review with new evidence published from 30.05.2016 - 18.01.2017, update 1. We review evidence on the causal link between ZIKV infection and adverse congenital outcomes and the causal link between ZIKV infection and GBS or immune-mediated thrombocytopaenia purpura. We also describe the transition of the review into a living systematic review, a review that is continually updated. Between 30.05.2016 and 18.01.2017, we identified 2413 publications, of which 101 publications were included. The evidence added in this update confirms the conclusion of a causal association between ZIKV and adverse congenital outcomes. New findings expand the evidence base in the dimensions of biological plausibility, strength of association, animal experiments and specificity. For GBS, the body of evidence has grown during the search period for update 1, but only for dimensions that were already populated in the previous version. There is still a limited understanding of the biological pathways that potentially cause the occurrence of autoimmune disease following ZIKV infection. This systematic review confirms previous conclusions that ZIKV is a cause of congenital abnormalities, including microcephaly, and is a trigger of GBS. The transition to living systematic review techniques and methodology provides a proof of concept for the use of these methods to synthesise evidence about an emerging pathogen such as ZIKV.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

04 Faculty of Medicine > Pre-clinic Human Medicine > Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine (ISPM)

UniBE Contributor:

Counotte, Michel Jacques, Egli, Dianne, Riesen, Maurane Vanessa Joëlle, Abraha, Million, Wang, Jingying, Low, Nicola

Subjects:

600 Technology > 610 Medicine & health
300 Social sciences, sociology & anthropology > 360 Social problems & social services

ISSN:

2046-1402

Publisher:

F1000 Research Ltd

Language:

English

Submitter:

Tanya Karrer

Date Deposited:

23 Jan 2019 10:50

Last Modified:

02 Mar 2023 23:31

Publisher DOI:

10.12688/f1000research.13704.1

PubMed ID:

30631437

Uncontrolled Keywords:

Guillain-barre syndrome Zika virus causality congenital abnormalities living systematic review microcephlay

BORIS DOI:

10.7892/boris.124493

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/124493

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