Monkeypox Vaccine Hesitancy in French Men Having Sex with Men with PrEP or Living with HIV in France

Abstract

People with pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) or living with HIV are a high-risk population for monkeypox virus (MPXV) infection. It is important to achieve high MPXV vaccination coverage rates in this group. This project used self-reporting to assess vaccine hesitancy for the smallpox vaccine and acceptance among men having sex with men with PrEP or living with HIV. In total, 52 (33.6%) participants among the 155 declared their hesitancy to be vaccinated against MPXV. Moreover, 20.7% patients with PrEP declared a hesitant attitude towards the smallpox vaccine compared to 40.2% of the HIV patients, p = 0.013. This difference remained not significant after adjustment for age (p = 0.119) and after adjustment for both age and number of different sexual partners (p = 0.406). Among PrEP people, those who expressed concerns about people getting more vaccines than needed (p = 0.012) were less likely to accept vaccination, whereas an increased number of different sexual partners during the previous month was significantly associated with acceptance of vaccination (p = 0.034). Among HIV people, those who expressed concerns about being infected by MPXV (p < 0.001), those who expressed that the smallpox vaccine should be compulsory for people at risk (p < 0.001) and those with an increased the number of different sexual partners the previous month (p = 0.018) were significantly associated with higher acceptance of MPXV vaccination. Our results suggest that vaccine strategy would be efficient in France with a communication strategy emphasizing the benefits of vaccination and the potential MPXV risk infection for health in PrEP and HIV people. Other preventive actions should be implemented, including reduction in sexual partners.

Perception of and Vaccine Readiness towards Mpox among Men Who Have Sex with Men Living with HIV in China: A Cross-Sectional Study

“…A total of 56.8% of MSM living with HIV in our study were willing to get the Mpox vaccine. Similar to our findings, 59.8% of MSM living with HIV in France indicated their acceptance towards Mpox vaccination [ 41 ]. Dukers-Muijrers and colleagues found that 81.5% of the MSM surveyed in the Netherlands were willing to receive an Mpox vaccine [ 42 ].…”

Knowledge, Attitude and Conspiracy Beliefs of Healthcare Workers in Lebanon towards Monkeypox

“…For example, MPOX vaccination can have an important role in the preventive efforts for high-risk groups, including HCWs [ 19 ]. Additionally, satisfactory knowledge and positive attitude towards MPOX vaccination can affect HCWs’ recommendation of the vaccine for other high-risk groups (e.g., men who have sex with men (MSM)) [ 28 , 40 ]. Specifically, and in the context of MPOX vaccination intention among the general public in the U.S., Winters et al reported that the most trusted sources of information regarding the outbreak were HCWs [ 41 ].…”

“…Consistent with our results, only 33% of physicians in a recent study among Turkish physicians were reported to have good MPOX knowledge [ 60 ]. Addressing these knowledge gaps can be valuable, since HCWs have a key role in community education and preparedness for outbreak response, particularly among high-risk groups (e.g., MSM and people living with HIV infections/AIDS (PLWHA)) [ 40 ]. This includes educational efforts necessary to recognize unusual presentation of the disease, including its genital manifestations [ 61 ].…”

Sexual behaviors, cannabis, alcohol and monkeypox infection

“…Wang et al ( 123 ), showed that MSM using chemsex recently were less likely to perceive higher concern for MPXV infection ( 123 ). One of the explanations could be that MSM using chemsex tend to underestimate the STI risk in general ( 124 , 125 ). However, Thornhill et al ( 20 ), reported a prevalence of 20% of chemsex use among 528 infections diagnosed in 16 countries ( 20 ).…”