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Race, ethnicity and risk for colonisation and infection with key bacterial pathogens: a scoping review

Avendano EE, Blackmon SA, Nirmala N, Chan CW, Morin RA, Balaji S, McNulty L, Argaw SA et al.

BMJ global health, 2025

61 participants · 5 citations

Abstract

Background: Racial and ethnic disparities in infectious disease burden have been reported in the USA and globally, most recently during the COVID-19 pandemic. It remains unclear whether such disparities also exist for priority bacterial pathogens that are increasingly antimicrobial-resistant. We conducted a scoping review to summarise published studies that report on colonisation or community-acquired infection with pathogens among different races and ethnicities.

Methods: We conducted an electronic literature search of MEDLINE, Daily, Global Health, Embase, Cochrane Central and Web of Science from inception to March 2024 for eligible observational studies. Abstracts and full-text publications were screened in duplicate for studies that reported data for race or ethnicity for at least one of the pathogens of interest.

Results: 62 observational studies in 68 publications met our inclusion criteria. Studies reported results for Staphylococcus aureus (n=61), Escherichia coli (n=9), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (n=2), Enterobacterales (n=1), Enterococcus faecium (n=1) and Klebsiella pneumoniae (n=1) and were conducted in the USA (n=48), Israel (n=6), New Zealand (n=4), Australia (n=3) and Brazil (n=1). US studies most often examined Black and Hispanic minority groups and regularly reported a higher risk of these pathogens in Black persons and mixed results for Hispanic persons. Ethnic minority groups were often reported to be at a higher risk in other countries.

Conclusions:…

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