DOI: 10.1177/26416549261477852 ISSN: 2641-6530
Prevalence of Biofilm-Forming
Pseudomonas aeruginosa
from Clinical Samples in Africa: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
Assefa Sisay, Zelalem Asmare, Ermias Getachew, Birhanu Kassanew, Ephrem Tamrat, Yalewayker Gashaw, Melese Abate Reta
Background:
Biofilms help
Pseudomonas aeruginosa
adhere to surfaces and form an extracellular polymeric matrix.
P. aeruginosa
infections are increasingly difficult to treat due to biofilm formation. This study seeks to ascertain the overall prevalence of biofilm-forming
P. aeruginosa
clinical isolates in Africa.
Methods:
All studies published from January 1, 2010, to December 30, 2024, were systematically obtained from electronic databases, including PubMed, ScienceDirect, and Scopus, as well as via the Google Scholar search engine. A random effects model was applied to estimate the weighted pooled prevalence of biofilm-forming
P. aeruginosa
from clinical isolates. The inverse variance (
I
2
) statistic was used to measure how different the studies were from each other. Subgroup analysis was conducted in the presence of heterogeneity. We used both a funnel plot and Egger’s regression test to check for publication bias.
Results:
This systematic review and meta-analysis include 42 possible papers with 2,209 isolates of
P. aeruginosa
. The overall pooled prevalence of biofilm formation was 73.90% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 66.26–81.54). Furthermore, the pooled prevalence of strong, moderate, and weak biofilm development was 19.98% (14.42–25.54), 30.56% (24.49–36.62), and 31.55% (23.80–39.31) at 95% CIs. A high degree of variability was indicated by the prevalence rates, which were 79.6% (48.5–110.8) and 73.4% (65.4–81.4%) at 95% CI, with corresponding
I
2
values of 90.2% and 93.1%, respectively, for the years 2010–2017 and 2018–2024.
Conclusions:
The combined frequency of clinical isolates of
P. aeruginosa
that produce biofilms has sharply increased. This suggests that frequent screening, proper patient treatment, and efficient control of the emergence of drug-resistant isolates.