A Multinational Cross-Sectional Study on the Awareness and Concerns of Healthcare Providers Toward Monkeypox and the Promotion of the Monkeypox Vaccination

Background: The outbreak of monkeypox was recognized as a worldwide health emergency by the World Health Organization on July 18, 2022. Previous studies in low-income nations indicated that healthcare staffs have inadequate awareness of the monkeypox virus. The goal of this study is to explore vaccination advocacy among Arab medical experts and their worries about the monkeypox virus in order to create effective solutions to manage this disease. Methods: An online cross-sectional research was conducted in many Arabic countries (Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Syria, Libya, Algeria, Tunisia, Iraq, Palestine, Jordan, and Sudan) from 2 August to 28 December, 202 to evaluate HCWs' concerns and worries about the monkeypox virus and to examine HCWs' support for vaccination. This questionnaire was designed based on a prior Saudi Arabian cross-sectional survey that included verified scales. The inclusion criteria were healthcare personnel from Arab nations, including doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and medical students. Forty-four questions are grouped into five categories: sociodemographic variables, HCWs' monkeypox knowledge, and healthcare professionals' worries regarding the monkeypox virus. The fourth portion assesses HCWs' knowledge of monkeypox infection, GAD-7 items to assess HCWs' anxiety over monkeypox. Results: We inquired 3,856 health care providers in our cross sectional study, and 56.3 % of the 3856 participants were female, and 78 % were between 21 and 30 years old. About 82% of respondents felt the need to acquire further information. The acceptability of the vaccine against monkeypox has been indicated by more than half of the participants (54.5%). Social media (58.1%), the WHO and CDC websites (31.1%), and the internet (30.2%) were mentioned as sources of monkeypox information. Concerns from monkeypox virus among participants were becoming infected themselves or their family (61.7%), cases escalating to the point of a national lockdown (54.6%), or a worldwide pandemic (45.9%). As well, wed define that 45% of the participants are knowledgeable about the monkeypox virus, and 53.1% of people who have never had COVID-19 before are more worried about COVID-19 than monkeypox. Respondents with more than five years of work experience were less worried about monkeypox than COVID-19 (OR=0.59) (P-value< 0.05) compared to those with less than five years of work experience. Participants diagnosed with COVID-19 were 0.63 times less likely to worry about monkeypox than those who had not. A greater willingness to get the monkeypox vaccination was seen among those ages 21 to 30 (42.4%) compared to other age groups. Previous infection with COVID-19 was related to a lower chance of supporting vaccinations against monkeypox (OR=0.64, p-value<0.05) compared to no prior infection with COVID-19, and Participants with anxiety were 1.48 times more likely than those without anxiety to support vaccinations against monkeypox. Participants who disagreed that healthcare professionals should implement more stringent infection control measures were predicted to have a reduced chance of monkeypox understanding (OR = 0.38, P-value<0.05) lower than participants who agreed. Conclusion: It was shown that HCWs in the Arab world is less concerned about the monkeypox virus than the COVID-19 virus. The majority of healthcare professionals have a moderate knowledge of the monkeypox virus. In addition to having a low willingness to get the vaccination against the monkeypox virus, it was evident that healthcare workers had negative attitudes toward adherence to monkeypox virus prevention methods. Setting laws for the medical staff and taking precautionary measures is crucial. It is suggested that adequate awareness programs be conducted for medical staff to clarify the dangers of underestimating the all features of monkeypox, and it is crucial to establish regulations for medical staff and take preventative measures toward monkeypox.Funding Statement: No funding was received for the conduction/publication of this study.Declaration of Interests: None.Ethics Approval Statement: The Syrian Ethical Society for Scientific Research in Aleppo University, Syria provided the ethical approval for conducting the study (IRB: SA-1087), in addition we ordered at least one printed ethical approval from the lead collaborator from each inquired country in our study, that were given by the clinical educational institutions (Hospitals, Medical Colleges). For confirming that the participating in our study was voluntary, the first question at the online survey was about acceptance the respondent to complete the survey. As well, we make sure that all methods in our online cross sectional were according to the WMA Declaration of Helsinki. The survey takes 5 to 12 minutes to complete, and for security purposes, all data is saved in an online database.