Efforts made, challenges faced, and recommendations provided by stakeholders involved in mpox prevention and control in China: a qualitative study

Abstract

Objectives

Mpox continues to spread in China, and stakeholders' experiences may help inform prevention and control strategies.

Study design

Qualitative study.

Methods

A qualitative study across 14 Chinese cities recruited stakeholders from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDCs), community-based organizations (CBOs), and hospitals involved in curbing mpox. Semi-structured interviews were conducted by telephone and analyzed using Colaizzi's phenomenological method.

Results

15 CBOs workers, 14 CDCs staff, and 13 healthcare workers were recruited. Three theme categories were identified: “Efforts to curb mpox epidemic”, including CDCs' epidemic management and health education, hospitals' diagnosis, treatment, and care, CBOs’ counseling, publicity, and referrals. “Challenges to curb mpox epidemic”, including negative impacts of hospital-based quarantine, lack of specific antiviral drugs, gay identity disclosure concerns, psychological problems, contact tracing difficulties, and inadequate communication and collaboration. “Recommendations for curbing mpox epidemic”, including prioritizing supervised home-based quarantine, incorporating HIV-related indicators into hospital quarantine criteria, reducing the cost of hospital quarantine, accelerating the development of vaccines and drugs, enhancing patient privacy protection, psychological training for stakeholders, establishing a task force that comprises personnel who are experienced in contact tracing and strengthening communication and collaboration.

Conclusions

Effective control of mpox spread requires strengthening collaboration with CBOs and community healthcare centers (CHCs) and working out a flexible and contextualized mechanism. It also needs to reinforce patient privacy protection and integrate stigma reduction into strategies. Additionally, it is important to include HIV-related indicators in the quarantine evaluation and provide psychological training for stakeholders to help them manage their mental health and improve counseling skills.