The leishmaniases in Kenya: a scoping review sub-analysis of diagnostics.

OBJECTIVES

Leishmaniasis poses a significant public health problem in Kenya, where effective case management and treatment rely on accurate diagnosis. This review aims to summarise the research landscape on leishmaniasis diagnostics in Kenya and identify gaps.

DESIGN

This scoping review expands a previously published scoping review on leishmaniasis in Kenya to further analyse studies focusing on diagnostics. The field of diagnostics was chosen because of recent pushes for novel tools and because of the role timely diagnosis plays in disease elimination. A comprehensive search of PubMed, Embase via Embase.com, Web of Science Core Collection, the Cochrane Library, ClinicalTrials.gov, WHO ICTRP and the Pan African Clinical Trials Registry was conducted, covering studies up to 5 January 2024.

RESULTS

After dual, blind screening with conflict resolution by a third reviewer, 41 studies were included in the review. These studies examined a range of diagnostic tools; however most were assessed in one or few studies, and none evaluated real-time PCR. Additional gaps in the research landscape include a lack of diagnostics for cutaneous leishmaniasis and post-kala-azar dermal leishmaniasis in Kenya, outdated literature surrounding the Direct Agglutination Test and randomised trials for any diagnostic tool.

CONCLUSIONS

Future research should focus on solidifying the validity and reliability of diagnostic tools in the Kenyan context and updating previous work.