Assessing the Effectiveness of a Community Intervention for Monkeypox Prevention in the Congo Basin

Abstract

In areas where health resources are limited, community participation in the recognition and reporting of disease hazards is critical for the identification of outbreaks. This is particularly true for zoonotic diseases such as monkeypox that principally affect people living in remote areas with few health services. Here we report the findings of an evaluation measuring the effectiveness of a film-based community outreach program designed to improve the understanding of monkeypox symptoms, transmission and prevention, by residents of the Republic of the Congo (ROC) who are at risk for disease acquisition. During 90 days, monkeypox outreach was conducted for ∼23,860 people in northern ROC. Two hundred seventy-one attendees (selected via a structured sample) were interviewed before and after participating in a small-group outreach session. The proportion of interviewees demonstrating monkeypox-specific knowledge before and after was compared. Significant gains were measured in areas of disease recognition, transmission, and mitigation of risk. The ability to recognize at least one disease symptom and a willingness to take a family member with monkeypox to the hospital increased from 49 and 45% to 95 and 87%, respectively (pOrthopoxvirus. But smallpox, which only affected humans, has been eradicated, whereas monkeypox continues to occur when humans come into contact with infected animals. There are currently no drugs specifically available for the treatment of monkeypox, and the use of vaccines for prevention is limited due to safety concerns. Therefore, monkeypox prevention depends on diminishing human contact with infected animals and preventing person-to-person spread of the virus. The authors describe a film-based method for community outreach intended to increase monkeypox knowledge among residents of communities in the Republic of the Congo. Outreach was performed to ∼23,600 rural Congolese. The effectiveness of the outreach was evaluated using a sample of individuals who attended small-group sessions. The authors found that among the participants, the ability to recognize monkeypox symptoms and the willingness to take ill family members to the hospital was significantly increased after seeing the films. In contrast, the willingness to deter some high-risk behaviors, such as eating animal carcasses found in the forest, remained fundamentally unchanged.