Ntawuyamara E, Ingabire T, Yandemye I, Ndayikeza P, Bhandari B, Liang YH. Assessing healthcare workers’ knowledge and confidence in the diagnosis, management and prevention of Monkeypox. World J Clin Cases 2025; 13(1): 99884 [DOI: 10.12998/wjcc.v13.i1.99884]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Yan-Hua Liang, MD, PhD, Professor, Department of Dermatology, Cosmetology and Venereology, Shenzhen Hospital of Southern Medical University, No. 1333 Xinhu Road, Shenzhen 518101, Guangdong Province, China. liangdoctor@163.com
Research Domain of This Article
Infectious Diseases
Article-Type of This Article
Observational Study
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Epipode Ntawuyamara, Bina Bhandari, Yan-Hua Liang, Department of Dermatology, Cosmetology and Venereology, Shenzhen Hospital of Southern Medical University, Shenzhen 518101, Guangdong Province, China
Epipode Ntawuyamara, Department of Dermatology and Venereology, Kamenge Teaching Hospital, University of Burundi, Bujumbura 1020, Burundi
Thierry Ingabire, Department of Infectious Diseases, Kamenge Teaching Hospital, University of Burundi, Bujumbura 1020, Burundi
Innocent Yandemye, General Directorate of Healthcare Supply, Modern and Traditional Medicine, Nutrition and Registration, Ministry of Public Health and Fight Against HIV/AIDS, Bujumbura 1055, Burundi
Polycarpe Ndayikeza, Department of Epidemiology, National Institute of Public Health, Bujumbura 350, Burundi
Polycarpe Ndayikeza, General Directorate of Planification, Ministry of Public Health and Fight Against HIV/AIDS, Bujumbura 1055, Burundi
Author contributions: Ntawuyamara E and Ingabire T performed conceptualization and manuscript writing; Yandemye I analyzed data; Ndayiza P and Bhandari B wrote methodology; Liang YH supervised all research activities. All authors have read and approved the final manuscript.
Institutional review board statement: The study was reviewed and approved by Kamenge Teaching Hospital of University of Burundi Review Board (No. FM/CE 04/2023).
Informed consent statement: All study participants provided informed written consent prior to study enrollment.
Conflict-of-interest statement: Authors declare that no conflict of interest exists.
Data sharing statement: Technical appendix, statistical code, and dataset available from the corresponding author at liangdoctor@163.com. Consent for data sharing was not obtained from the participants but the presented data are anonymized and risk of identification is low.
STROBE statement: The authors have read the STROBE Statement-checklist of items, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the STROBE Statement-checklist of items.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Yan-Hua Liang, MD, PhD, Professor, Department of Dermatology, Cosmetology and Venereology, Shenzhen Hospital of Southern Medical University, No. 1333 Xinhu Road, Shenzhen 518101, Guangdong Province, China. liangdoctor@163.com
Received: August 1, 2024 Revised: September 19, 2024 Accepted: October 23, 2024 Published online: January 6, 2025 Processing time: 97 Days and 13 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND
Monkeypox (Mpox), is a disease of global public health concern, as it does not affect only countries in western and central Africa.
AIM
To assess Burundi healthcare workers (HCWs)s’ level of knowledge and confidence in the diagnosis and management of Mpox.
METHODS
We conducted a cross-sectional study via an online survey designed mainly from the World Health Organization course distributed among Burundi HCWs from June-July 2023. The questionnaire comprises 8 socioprofessional-related questions, 22 questions about Mpox disease knowledge, and 3 questions to assess confidence in Mpox diagnosis and management. The data were analyzed via SPSS software version 25.0. A P value < 0.05 was considered to indicate statistical significance.
RESULTS
The study sample comprised 471 HCWs who were mainly medical doctors (63.9%) and nurses (30.1%). None of the 22 questions concerning Mpox knowledge had at least 50% correct responses. A very low number of HCWs (17.4%) knew that Mpox has a vaccine. The confidence level to diagnose (21.20%), treat (18.00%) or prevent (23.30%) Mpox was low among HCWs. The confidence level in the diagnosis of Mpox was associated with the HCWs’ age (P value = 0.009), sex (P value < 0.001), work experience (P value = 0.002), and residence (P value < 0.001). The confidence level to treat Mpox was significantly associated with the HCWs’ age (P value = 0.050), sex (P value < 0.001), education (P value = 0.033) and occupation (P value = 0.005). The confidence level to prevent Mpox was associated with the HCWs’ education (P value < 0.001), work experience (P value = 0.002), residence (P value < 0.001) and type of work institution (P value = 0.003).
CONCLUSION
This study revealed that HCWs have the lowest level of knowledge regarding Mpox and a lack of confidence in the ability to diagnose, treat or prevent it. There is an urgent need to organize continuing medical education programs on Mpox epidemiology and preparedness for Burundi HCWs. We encourage future researchers to assess potential hesitancy toward Mpox vaccination and its associated factors.
Core Tip: On August 14, 2024, the World Health Organization director-general declared that the upsurge of Monkeypox (Mpox) cases in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and in Africa constitute a public health emergency of international concern. Burundi, which borders the DRC to the east, declared a Mpox outbreak on July 25, 2024 and had just over 500 confirmed cases of Mpox, classifying Burundi as the second most affected country in Africa after the DRC. This study revealed that Burundi healthcare workers have the lowest level of knowledge regarding Mpox and a lack of confidence in the ability to diagnose, treat or prevent Mpox.
