Molecular epidemiology of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in the Middle East and North Africa: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Author First name, Last name, Institution

• Tsegaye Shamebo, Zayed University
• Aboma Zewude, United Arab Emirates University
• Temesgen Mohammed, United Arab Emirates University
• Atef Oreiby, United Arab Emirates University
• Mohammed Saleh Albreiki, Abu Dhabi Agriculture and Food Safety Authority
• Yassir Mohammed Eltahir, Abu Dhabi Agriculture and Food Safety Authority
• Robert Barigye, United Arab Emirates University
• Markos Tibbo, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
• Ali Artaman, Zayed UniversityFollow
• Gobena Ameni, United Arab Emirates University

Document Type

Article

Source of Publication

International Journal of Infectious Diseases

Publication Date

10-1-2026

Abstract

Objective The objective of this article was to conduct a comprehensive systematic review and meta-analysis on the molecular epidemiology of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in the Middle East and North Africa. Methods PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, Embase, and Google Scholar databases were used for literature search on the molecular epidemiology, clustering rate and recent transmission index of Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTBC) published between 1 January 2000 to 31 December 2025. The study quality was assessed using the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS) and meta-analysis was carried out using R statistics version 4.5.3. Results Fifty-nine studies reported 13,194 Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M. tuberculosis) isolates of which 82.0% corresponded to shared international types in the SpolDB4 database. Lineages 4 (42.3%) and 3 (28.3%) were dominant while lineages 1 and 2 were limited. Meta-analysis pooled result showed that the clustering rate and recent transmission index were 52% (95% CI: 43-61%) and 40% (95% CI: 33-47%), respectively. The subgroup analysis showed that clustering rates varied significantly according to the genotyping methods used (χ² = 124.36, P < 0.0001), whereas no significant differences were observed across geographic regions (χ² = 0.00, P = 0.9812). Conclusion The estimated recent transmission index indicates ongoing transmission, highlighting the need to strengthen targeted TB control measures, including active case finding, effective contact tracing, timely diagnosis and treatment, and the integration of advanced molecular epidemiological methods.

DOI Link

10.1016/j.ijid.2026.108967

ISSN

1201-9712

Publisher

Elsevier BV

Volume

171

Disciplines

Medicine and Health Sciences

Keywords

Clustering rate, Meta-analysis, Molecular epidemiology, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Recent transmission index

Scopus ID

105046464770

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.

Recommended Citation

Shamebo, Tsegaye; Zewude, Aboma; Mohammed, Temesgen; Oreiby, Atef; Albreiki, Mohammed Saleh; Mohammed Eltahir, Yassir; Barigye, Robert; Tibbo, Markos; Artaman, Ali; and Ameni, Gobena, "Molecular epidemiology of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in the Middle East and North Africa: A systematic review and meta-analysis" (2026). All Works. 8088.
https://zuscholars.zu.ac.ae/works/8088

Indexed in Scopus

yes

Open Access

yes

Open Access Type

Gold: This publication is openly available in an open access journal/series