- Groundwork
All responses are local. How behavioral systems can enhance global management of the Mpox outbreak
Mohammed M. Alhaji, Nyaga Robert G. & Patrick Forscher
- October 28, 2024
- 7:41 am
SECTOR
PROJECT TYPE
Location
BEHAVIORAL THEME
OVERVIEW
Mpox represents a dire threat to public health. We believe that behavioral science can play a crucial role in understanding and managing the Mpox threat as effective management of public health requires understanding and managing human behavior. However, behavioral science alone may not be enough: pandemics spread through complex networks of human behavior that we call behavioral systems (Diaz del Valle, Wendel, & Jang, 2023); responding effectively to Mpox may therefore require an interdisciplinary toolkit that integrates qualitative and quantitative methods from across psychology, behavioral economics, anthropology, political science, systems analysis, and computational methods to understand how individual behaviors fit within larger systems, and how these systems can, in turn, be changed through effective targeting of behavioral interventions within them.
THEMATIC AREAS
The Mpox response is hindered by systemic challenges, such as cross-border movement. Other behavioral factors, such as perceptions that Mpox is low risk, stigma, and low awareness or knowledge of its transmission, further hinder proper Mpox management. These challenges are further compounded by limited access to diagnostics, therapeutics, and vaccines in Africa, high rates of HIV co-infection, and inadequate surveillance and diagnostic capacity in the hardest-hit countries (Adamu et al., 2024; Ndembi et al., 2024; WHO, 2024a).
So far, multilateral organizations dealing with health have mainly responded in three primary ways:
- ensuring equitable access to vaccines and other medical supplies,
- engaging communities to promote disease surveillance and prevention, and
- coordinating stakeholders to promote learning and research.
