Rapid review on monkeypox policies among the G20 nations: relevance to policy and practitioner.

Background

Monkeypox has been declared as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) by the WHO Director General (WHO-DG). Most of the G20 nations have reported Monkeypox outbreak. Policies developed and implemented in G20 countries for the prevention and control of monkeypox preparedness and response have global consequences. This rapid review aimed to map the monkeypox prevention and control policies planned and implemented in G20 nations in line with temporary recommendations issued by the WHO-DG.

Methods

We mapped monkeypox prevention and control policies in G20 nations based on the WHO-DG recommendations. Medline (through PubMed), Scopus, and ProQuest Health and Medical Complete were searched to understand G20 preventative, diagnostic, and therapeutic policies. We also performed an extensive gray literature search through the Ministry of Health websites and newspaper through Google.  The documents/ studies that had an information on prevention, control and management guidelines/policies and published through journal, news articles and health ministry websites of G20 nations on monkeypox were included. We excluded the editorials, opinion, and perspective papers and studies published prior to May 6, 2022.

Results

We obtained 671 articles with 10 articles included in the review. Additionally, we identified 55 documents from the gray literature. We included national guidelines of the 18 countries on the control, prevention, and management of monkeypox. National guidelines were compared with the WHO guidelines in terms of implementing coordinated response, engaging and protecting communities, surveillance and public health measures and international travel, clinical management and infection, prevention and control (IPC) measures and medical countermeasures research. Depending on the availability of resources, some recommendations are followed by nations while others are not.

Conclusions

Coordinated response among states is key to contain the transmission of monkeypox. To bring a coordinated response, G20 nations are following temporary recommendations that are context specific to their nation.