Prof. RNDr. Vanda Boštíková, Ph.D.
Prof. RNDr. Aleš Macela, DrSc.
During the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, the dissemination of misleading information regarding the origin, treatment and prevention of Covid-19 caused fear and mistrust. This led to the questioning of proclaimed preventive measures, including doubts about the effectiveness of vaccination, and in its consequences resulted in often high-risk behaviour of the population.
A similar pattern is now emerging on social media with the spread of Mpox virus, the new name for the monkeypox virus as of 28 November 2022. The most used platforms for searching and then sharing information about the Mpox virus in the past year have been Google and X. A study of online search trends for Mpox virus infections showed that the volume of Mpox virus-related searches skyrocketed at the start of the outbreak, with the US ranking first, followed by India and the UK. All this happened in 2022 in direct correlation with the World Health Organization’s declaration of emergency measures due to the identification of Mpox virus-induced disease in many countries outside Africa. Community transmission was first demonstrated in the UK and Portugal, and subsequently confirmed in most of the continental Europe, North America, Australia and Israel [1-4].
More recently, in the summer of 2024, as a result of the alarming situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the World Health Organization declared a “Public Health Emergency of International Concern.” Between January and September 2024, 6,201 infections and 32 deaths related to Mpox have been confirmed in Africa (majority of cases in DRC). At the same time, a genetically novel type of Mpox virus has been detected, both in Europe and Asia [11]. Analysis of the virus genome in samples collected from patients showed an unexpectedly high number of mutations, raising concerns about the widespread spread of the disease. In addition, papers that Mpox is a sexually transmitted disease have been discussed [5]. It was the misunderstanding of information about disease transmission and its epidemic spread, together with its deliberate manipulation, that raised completely unfounded fears of an Mpox pandemic.
In terms of content analysis, the tweets can be divided into several clusters: cynical, angry comments, discussing men having sex with other men, the issue of casuistry, vaccination, and WHO credibility. There was a large amount of misinformation with discriminatory and hostile content towards gays, bisexuals and other atypically oriented sexual minorities. Tweets with negative content or erroneous information went viral and reached a huge number of social media users [6-8]. In connection with Mpox, as in the case of the Covid-19 disease, one can find both completely false claims, i.e. misinformation, and claims that are true, but which try to arouse negative reactions (malinformation), to create chaos, to scare, as well as claims that are very inaccurate, but which are shared without any apparent intention to harm the reader, to cause panic or fear (misinformation). It is also very common to read that the Mpox vaccine is more likely to cause the disease than to protect the vaccinated person against it. Claims of very serious side effects from vaccination are also commonplace.
Yet the Mpox virus is quite simple. The original name “monkeypox virus” derives from the first detection of the pox virus in monkeys imported into Denmark in 1958. As we have already mentioned, in 2022 this virus name was changed to Mpox. Mpox is spread by close or intimate contact with an infected person, direct contact with infected animals, or contact with contaminated objects or sharing items such as towels, beds, etc. It is not known that the disease is spread only by respiratory transmission; the likelihood of respiratory transmission of the virus causing Mpox from person to person appears to be low. The disease begins with fever, chills, headache, muscle and back pain, exhaustion and swollen lymph nodes (lymphadenopathy). Within 1 to 3 days (sometimes longer) after the onset of fever, the patient develops a typical rash (smallpox), often starting on the face and then spreading to other parts of the body. The mortality rate for Mpox without treatment and without vaccination is one percent. The number of cases of Mpox is such that it does not require the declaration of any anti-epidemic measures. Only protective equipment is recommended for personnel who are in contact with Mpox patients [9, 10].
Misleading information about Mpox has devastating consequences, a part of the population ignores critical recommendations, and the phenomenon of infodemia then has negative effects not only on the general population, but also makes it difficult for health professionals to navigate the flood of fake news. They should be the source of unquestionable information on the health risks arising from the possible spread of pathogenic micro-organisms. They should also spread awareness of health measures and seek to ensure that both governments and authorities introduce legal standards to address the penalties for the dissemination of fake news by individuals. Additionally, they should influence social media companies, particularly influencers, to take stronger action on one hand to curb the spread of falsehoods, and on the other hand, help to continuously improve the health literacy of the general public.
Reference
- https://szu.gov.cz/temata-zdravi-a-bezpecnosti/a-z-infekce/m/mpox/pripady-hlasene-v-uk-a-portugalsku/
- https://www.bbc.com/news/health-61506562.
- https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2022-05-20/ty-article/israel-discovers-first-case-of-monkeypox-virus/00000180-e9f9-d189-af82-f9fd13df0000.
- https://www.novinky.cz/clanek/zahranicni-evropa-opici-nestovice-se-siri-necekane-rychle-prekvapuje-lekare-hlasi-je-uz-12-statu-40397780.
- https://www.newsx.com/health/is-mpox-a-sexually-transmitted-disease-indian-experts-argue-stigma-attached/
- Edinger A, Valdez D, Walsh-Buhi, et al. Misinformation and public health messaging in the early stages of the Mpox outbreak: Mapping the Twitter Narrative with deep learning. J Med Internet Res. 2023, 25:e438
- Yan X, Li Z, Cao C, et al. Characteristics , Influencee, Prevention, and Control Measures of the Mpox Infodemmic Scoping Review of Infodemiology Studies. J Med Internet Res, 2024, 26:e54874
- Powell J, Pring T. The impact of social media influencers on health outcomes: Systematic review. Soc Sci Med, 2024, 340: 116472
- https://szu.gov.cz/wpcontent/uploads/2023/04/Zakladni_informace_o_onemocneni_MPX.pdf
- https://www.cdc.gov/mpox/causes/index.html
- Cohen J. Congo’s Mpox crisis. Science, 2024, 386(6728):1336-1343
