Concern for mpox infection in Latin America.

BACKGROUND

Mpox arrived in Latin America and quickly began to replicate, so it is important to measure the concern it generates among residents. The study aims to assess whether country or other factors are associated with concern about mpox infection in Latin America.

METHODS

The study uses a cross-sectional, multicenter design. Sampling was conducted using non-random snowball sampling. From August to September 2022, concern about being infected with mpox was assessed using a previously validated questionnaire (Cronbach's Alpha: 0.85); it was divided into nine countries and other social variables.

RESULTS

From 1404 respondents, the majority of respondents were female (60.3%) and young (median age 25 years); also, a few reported that it was a significant problem (6% almost all the time and 11% often) and were concerned (6% almost all the time and 11% often) about the possibility of mpox infection. In multivariate analysis, men (aPR: 0.85; 95% CI: 0.73-0.99; p-value=0.046), younger (aPR: 0.98; 95% CI: 0.97-0.99; p-value<0.001), single (aPR: 0.78; 95% CI: 0.62-0.99; p-value=0.042) and, compared to Peru, those living in Colombia (aPR: 0.75; 95% CI. 0.58-0.97; p-value=0.027) and Costa Rica (aPR: 0.65; 95% CI: 0.44-0.96; p-value=0.032) reported the lowest concern; also, Bolivia (aPR: 1.16; 95% CI: 0.94-1.43; p-value=0.176) and Honduras (aPR: 1.01; 95% CI: 0.80-1.27; p-value=0.943) reported that their concerns tend to be higher.

CONCLUSIONS

There were evident differences across respondents' countries; these baseline results show that the first report was made in many countries that were also significantly affected by mpox and now face a new epidemic threatening public health.