Knowledge and Attitude of Human Monkeypox Viral Infection Among Healthcare Practitioners and Students in Saudi Arabia: A Cross-Sectional Study.

Background: Human monkeypox (Mpox) is a viral zoonotic infectious disease occurs mostly in central and western Africa that can be transmitted to humans and animal. On July 2022, the World Health Organization declared the global Mpox outbreak, which considered as a huge health issue. The prevalence of Mpox in Saudi Arabia has been very low until now.

Aim: This research aims to assess knowledge and attitudes of healthcare practitioners and students toward human Mpox in Saudi Arabia.

Methods:  A cross-sectional study conducted among healthcare practitioners and students in Saudi Arabia assessing knowledge, practice and attitudes towards Mpox infection. We conducted descriptive statistics for all variables.

Results: A total of 212 participants were included in the study. The majority of participants provided correct responses about the type of microorganisms that cause human Mpox infection and were aware about the low prevalence of the Mpox in Saudi Arabia, but they were not able to identify the correct number of cases in Saudi Arabia. About the symptoms of Mpox, participants showed good knowledge about the common symptoms like skin rash but poor knowledge about less common symptoms like lymph-node swelling. About 70% of participants were aware of the effectiveness of antiviral drugs to treat Mpox.

Conclusion: Gaps in knowledge were detected among participants. Therefore, increasing knowledge of Mpox by providing educational courses for healthcare practitioners and healthcare students is crucial.