A bibliometric study of international scientific productivity in giardiasis covering the period 1971–2010

Abstract

Introduction: Despite years of relative neglect, interest in Giardia infection seems to be recently growing, perhaps in part due to its inclusion into the World Health Organization's Neglected Diseases Initiative since 2004. The purpose of this study was to provide an overview of Giardia and giardiasis research over time, as represented by the quantity of published papers. Methodology: Data for this study were collected from the electronic PubMed/Medline database of National Library of Medicine's (NLM), due to it is easily accessibility and wide use. It was accessed online between April and December 2011. Data for the period 1971-2010 were obtained and information was downloaded using the EndNote program developed by Thomson Reuters. Results: During the study period, a total of 6,964 references (articles, reviews, editorials, letter to the editor, etc.) covering different aspects of Giardia and giardiasis were located in the PubMed database after applying the search strategy reported above. Most papers were original articles and published in English. Conclusions: In this first effort to explore the development and research productivity on giardiasis over time (no previously published bibliometric studies on giardiasis exist), two interesting characteristics of the Giardia and giardiasis literature were discovered: the concentration of papers over journals disseminating the research results, and that research in this field is growing and will likely continue to grow in the coming years.

Introductory Chapter: Giardiasis - Still a Globally Relevant Protozoan and Zoonotic Disease

“…In the same way, a bibliometric study of scientiic production on giardiasis reports 6964 papers between 1971 and 2010 available in PubMed, writen in 27 diferent languages corresponding to original articles (78.5%), reviews (8.6%), case reports (6.8%), and leters to the editors (3.6%) that evidenced a steady growth of literature dedicated to Giardia and its infection throughout the 40-year analyzed period [7]. This pathogen has been highlighted for the importance in terms of patient well-being and its efects on quality of life for being a continuing cause of the patient's discomfort and pain.…”

“…Giardia intestinal is a lagellated protozoon (also known as G. lamblia or G. duodenalis) and is a tiny and ubiquitous intestinal and/or biliary parasite, which afects mammals, such as humans, pets, and livestock by inhabiting the upper part of the small intestine [4][5][6]. Frequently, this parasite contaminates water sources worldwide especially in temperate and tropical locations where sanitary conditions are suboptimal; for this reason, giardiasis is the commonest parasitic infection of the gastrointestinal tract, the most important responsible for outbreaks of diarrhea and sporadic endemic disease [7,8].…”

“…Usually, most patients remain asymptomatic, but when signs and symptoms occur and acute disease is established, manifestations happen normally in travelers and in outbreaks, and they are characterized by diarrhea, nausea, anorexia, dehydration, latulence, eructation, distention, abdominal cramping, and weight loss. Contradictorily, fever and vomiting are uncommon [7,13,20].…”

“…Whereas medical opposition may limit the use of some of them in singular cases, as in pediatrics, where their dose requirements make diicult the administration of tablet formulations to children. Finally, in the follow-up of some patients after treatment to evaluate the response to antigiardial drugs, a therapeutic failure is identiied [4,7,21,22].…”

“…Due to its intensifying global burden and its developmental and socioeconomic impact on infected individuals, this parasitosis was incorporated in the Neglected Disease Initiative of the World Health Organization in 2004 [4,7,9,10].…”