Prevalence of Toxocara spp. eggs in soil of public areas in Iran: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Toxocariasis is a zoonotic and widespread infection which manifest as a spectrum of syndromes in humans such as visceral, neural, ocular, covert and asymptomatic. Herein we aimed to design a systematic review and meta-analysis to determine the prevalence of Toxocara spp. eggs in soil depositories in Iran. English (PubMed, Scopus, Google Scholar, Web of Science, Science Direct, EBSCO, and Ovid) and Persian (Scientific Information Database and Magiran) databases were explored. This review resulted in a total of 14 publications meeting the inclusion criteria during January 2000-November 2016. Altogether, 3031 soil samples were examined among which 470 were positive in terms of Toxocara spp. The weighted overall prevalence of Toxocara spp. in soil samples was 16% (95% CI = 11-21%), and Tehran and Qazvin provinces had the highest and lowest prevalence rates, respectively. Meta-regression analysis showed that the correlation between prevalence of Toxocara eggs in soil with sample size (P = 0.45) and year of study (P = 0.42) were not statistically significant. Further studies are highly recommended to enlighten different aspects of toxocariasis in Iran.