MPOWER Programme Manager HIV Ireland Phibsborough, Dublin, Ireland
Project:
Risk communication and community engagement is a key intervention in the emergency response to public health threats such as the ongoing multi-country mpox outbreak and the COVID-19 pandemic. Timely, trusted, and culturally appropriate risk communication and community engagement are crucial in achieving results across all aspects of the response, from testing, tracing, and isolation to treatment and prevention. Success or failure of these measures depends on support from affected individuals and communities. Health authorities in Ireland partnered with MPOWER, a peer-led sexual health organisation for gay and bisexual men to craft a response.
Issue:
An emergency outbreak response was required in Ireland from May 2022 to rapidly understand, respond, and control the fast-evolving multi-country mpox outbreak. Meaningful engagement of leaders in the affected community was crucial in building and establishing trust in the affected community and crafting effective risk communication interventions. To this end, a multi-stakeholder mpox communications group was formed early in the response to develop and deliver peer-led, non-stigmatising information rapidly and directly to the primarily affected community.
Results:
The group worked collaboratively to develop and deliver campaigns and engagement events that created awareness about mpox and its symptoms, offered safer sex and behaviour change advice, and informed, supported, and referred the affected population to testing, treatment, and prevention services. A mixture of established and innovative communication approaches was delivered over three campaign cycles – ‘Alert, Inform, Take Action’. The efforts of this group are considered a best practice example for risk communication and community engagement on mpox by ECDC and the WHO, and were included in guidance documents aiming to inspire countries in the European Region to develop approaches in their response.
Lessons Learned:
Building trust with affected communities during an outbreak supports the uptake and acceptance of infection control measures. The use of trusted communicators for risk communication and community engagement is critical to successful outbreak control. In the ongoing multi-country mpox outbreak and for future outbreaks of infectious disease in key populations, emphasis should be placed on communicators who are members/leaders of, or those who have longstanding relationships with the affected communities.
