Community Mobilization to Guide the Public Health Response During the 2022 Ontario Mpox Outbreak: A Brief Report

Darrell H S Tan; Adam Awad; Austin Zygmunt; James Murray; Daniel Warshafsky; Sharmistha Mishra; Dane Griffiths

doi:10.1093/ofid/ofae195

Community Mobilization to Guide the Public Health Response During the 2022 Ontario Mpox Outbreak: A Brief Report

Open Forum Infect Dis. 2024 Oct 15;11(Suppl 2):S129-S132. doi: 10.1093/ofid/ofae195. eCollection 2024 Oct.

Authors

Darrell H S Tan^{1

2

3}, Adam Awad^{4

5}, Austin Zygmunt^{6

7}, James Murray⁸, Daniel Warshafsky⁹, Sharmistha Mishra^{1

2

3}, Dane Griffiths^{4

10}

Affiliations

¹ Division of Infectious Diseases, St Michael's Hospital, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
² MAP Centre for Urban Health Solutions, St Michael's Hospital, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
³ Department of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
⁴ Gay Men's Sexual Health Alliance, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
⁵ Max Ottawa Community Health, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
⁶ Department of Health Protection, Public Health Ontario, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
⁷ Department of Family Medicine, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
⁸ HIV and Hepatitis C Programs, Ontario Ministry of Health, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
⁹ Office of the Chief Medical Officer of Health, Public Health, Ontario Ministry of Health, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
¹⁰ Toronto Public Health, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Abstract

The 2022 mpox epidemic predominantly affected gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men (GBM). Led by a provincial community program and co-galvanized by clinician-researchers, GBM community leaders in Ontario coordinated a robust response, representing a reproducible strategy for community engagement and mobilization during future epidemics.

Keywords: communications; community engagement; epidemic response; monkeypox; mpox.