Grant: Team Grant: Mpox and zoonotic threats - Public health

Prior to 2022, the viral disease mpox was largely ignored by the global community. However, once it began to spread to many countries resulting in an ongoing outbreak, it became an international public health emergency. The ongoing outbreak has had a particular impact on the gay, bisexual, and men who have sex with men (gbMSM) community. Although the COVID-19 pandemic taught the world that understanding infectious disease transmission is important, it is equally crucial to analyze the influence of human behaviour in disease dynamics. Reducing the spread of mpox requires understanding how people will respond to information about the disease and how behavioural changes elicited by this response can affect public health strategies. Moreover, the disproportionate impact of mpox in the gbMSM community implies that additional behavioural concerns need to be addressed. In particular, stigmatizing attitudes result in increased hesitancy to access public health assistance by gbMSM individuals while also influencing public opinion of mpox. This project develops an epidemiological model of mpox that includes changes in behaviour. This modelling is driven by data from scientific literature and near real-time behavioural information from social media on prevailing attitudes towards mpox and members of the gbMSM community. The project will create a community advisory board that includes experts and members of the gbMSM community in order to develop culturally sensitive and adequate strategies and ensure timely knowledge translation of our results to a broad audience.