When a Neglected Tropical Disease Goes Global: Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices of Italian Physicians towards Monkeypox, Preliminary Results

Abstract

Monkeypox (MPX) has been regarded as a neglected tropic disease of Western and Central Africa since the early 70s. However, during May 2022, an unprecedent outbreak of MPX has involved most of European Countries, as well as North and South America. While the actual extent of this outbreak is being assessed by health authorities, we performed a pilot study on specific knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) in a sample of Italian medical professionals (24–30 May 2022; 10,293 potential recipients), focusing on Occupational Physicians (OP), Public Health Professionals (PH), and General Practitioners (GP), i.e., medical professionals more likely involved in the early management of incident cases. More specifically, we inquired into their attitude on the use of variola vaccine in order to prevent MPX infection. From a total of 566 questionnaire (response rate of 5.5%), 163 participants were included in the final analyses. Knowledge status was quite unsatisfying, with substantial knowledge gaps on all aspect of MPX. In turn, analysis of risk perception suggested a substantial overlooking of MPX as a pathogen, particularly when compared to SARS-CoV-2, TB, HIV, and HBV. Overall, 58.6% of respondents were somehow favorable to implement variola vaccination in order to prevent MPX, and the main effectors of this attitude were identified in having been previously vaccinated against seasonal influenza (adjusted Odds Ratio [aOR] 6.443, 95% Confidence Interval [95%CI] 1.798–23.093), and being favorable to receive variola vaccine (aOR 21.416; 95%CI 7.290–62.914). In summary, the significant extent of knowledge gaps and the erratic risk perception, associated collectively stress the importance of appropriate information campaigns among first-line medical professionals.

Study of knowledge, attitude and anxiety in Kurdistan-region of Iraqi population during the monkeypox outbreak in 2022

“…As Yoo (Yoo et al, 2022) states, "the wounds that the COVID-19 pandemic has in icted on us are very deep and seemingly long-lasting and still affect us". Such attitudes revealed in this study contradict previous research (Alshahrani et al, 2022;Riccò et al, 2022) reporting positive attitudes because, unlike the participants of our study, these studies were conducted among physicians. Importantly, the limited knowledge of these study participants might be one reason behind the neutral attitudes expressed.…”

“…Although the pandemic seems to be recent, knowledge of the disease by ordinary people can help prevent its development. Our results coincide with previous research not only among ordinary people, but among Jordanian medical, nursing, dentistry, and pharmacy students (Sallam et al, 2022), Indonesian general practitioners (Harapan et al, 2020), Saudi physicians (Alshahrani et al, 2022), and Italian physicians (Riccò et al, 2022). These groups of the human population are considered to be knowledgeable as they belong to the health sciences and should possess information at least regarding health-related topics.…”

“…This nding supports and buttresses previous research that found males were more positive in their attitudes (Sallam et al, 2022). Despite the fact that (Riccò et al, 2022) demonstrated the contrary, i.e., insigni cant results. Furthermore, education level showed that people with a bachelor's degree held more positive attitudes while people with diplomas recorded the lowest mean score.…”

“…The online survey was administered via Google forms and was distributed via Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter, and email lists. The questionnaire was adapted from prior published studies on monkeypox and COVID-19 (Harapan et al, 2020;Riccò et al, 2022;Roy et al, 2020), and modi ed to suit the current study (Supplementary File 1).…”

Monkeypox self-diagnosis abilities, determinants of vaccination and self-isolation intention after diagnosis among MSM, the Netherlands, July 2022

“…We believe that future research should investigate preventions intentions, for example, those that reflect changes in vaccine availability, and complement the emerging picture on attitudes related to monkeypox, such as determinants of infection concerns, and also triangulate results obtained among MSM with healthcare provider perspectives. Data from other contexts, for example Italy, show that healthcare providers currently lack relevant knowledge, underestimate the epidemic and the need for tailored responses [ 14 ].…”