Monkeypox Post-COVID-19: Knowledge, Worrying, and Vaccine Adoption in the Arabic General Population

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Epidemiology
• Infectious Diseases

Background:

• The World Health Organization declared monkeypox a global public health emergency in July 2022.
• The study addresses the need to evaluate the Arabic population's attitudes towards monkeypox, including fears and vaccine acceptance, in comparison to COVID-19.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the general Arabic population's knowledge, fears, and vaccine adoption regarding monkeypox.
• To compare public attitudes towards monkeypox with those observed during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Main Methods:

• A cross-sectional study was conducted in 17 Arabic countries from August to September 2022.
• A 32-question survey assessed sociodemographics, COVID-19 history, monkeypox knowledge, fears, and used the GAD-7 scale.
• Logistic regression analysis was employed to identify significant predictors.

Main Results:

• 66.2% of 3665 respondents were more worried about COVID-19 than monkeypox.
• Key concerns for monkeypox included personal/family infection (39.5%) and it becoming a global pandemic (38.4%).
• 71.7% showed low anxiety towards monkeypox, yet 43.8% had poor knowledge; prior COVID-19 infection increased vaccine acceptance.

Conclusions:

• A significant majority of the Arabic population expressed greater concern for COVID-19 over monkeypox.
• Inadequate knowledge about monkeypox was prevalent, necessitating urgent public health interventions.
• Disseminating accurate information on monkeypox prevention is crucial.