Prevalence of dengue infection in Bangladesh: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Abstract

Objective: To estimate the pooled prevalence of dengue infection in Bangladesh. Methods: Literature search was conducted across PubMed, Web of Science, and Hinari between December 2024 and April 2025, supplemented by references searching. The Joanna Briggs Institute checklist was used for evaluating study quality. A random effects meta-analysis of proportion, including subgroup analyses, was performed with R software (version 4.5.1).Results: Out of 2 087 records, 28 studies were included. The pooled prevalence of confirmed dengue infection among clinically suspected patients was 49.3% (95% Cl 36.1-62.6), with a significant high heterogeneity (I²=99.2%, τ²=1.81, P<0.001). Stratified analysis showed a pooled prevalence of 47.9% (95% Cl 34.0-62.2, I2=99.1%, τ²=1.71, P<0.001) for acute/recent infection, and 7.9% (95% CI 1.3-36.8, I²=89.3%, τ²=2.64, P<0.001) for prior infection among clinically suspected patients. In the general population, based on a limited number of studies, the pooled prevalence of prior dengue infection was 52.8% (95% CI 8.5-93.1, I²=99.9%, τ²=3.23, P<0.001). DENV-3 was the most prevalent of 52.0% (95% CI 23.4-79.4, I²=98.3%, τ²=4.11, P<0.001) among molecularly confirmed serotype-positive patients, followed by DENV-2 of 35.8% (95% CI 13.7-66.2, I²=98.4%, τ²=4.23, P<0.001).Conclusions: Despite significant heterogeneity among studies, the pooled estimates provide a clear picture of dengue infection burden in Bangladesh and provide a benchmark for monitoring future trends.

Keywords

Bangladesh / Dengue infection / Meta-analysis / Pooled prevalence

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.

Funding

This research received no external funding.

Previous presentation

Preliminary findings of this systematic review and meta-analysis were presented as a poster at Research Day 2025, Macon & Joan Brock Virginia Health Sciences, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA, USA, on November 21, 2025.

Authors’ contributions

M.E.R contributed to conceptualization, methodology, investigation, analysis, and drafting the manuscript. A.A.T contributed to methodology, investigation, analysis, and editing the manuscript. M.S. contributed to methodology, investigation and editing the manuscript. M.A.K., and A.N.A. contributed to reviewing and editing the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Publisher’s note

The Publisher of the Journal remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Edited by Zhang Q, Lei Y, Pan Y

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the corresponding authors for providing the full-texts.

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