Knowledge of the monkeypox 2022 outbreak among dental hygienists and students in Saudi Arabia: A cross-sectional study.

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to assess the knowledge of monkeypox infection among dental hygiene professionals and students in Saudi Arabia. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted among a convenience sample of dental hygiene professionals (n = 259). The questionnaire was developed based on previous literature, and descriptive analysis and a Chi-square test were performed. RESULTS: A total of 159 dental hygienists responded to the questionnaire. Results indicated that only 1.7% had good knowledge, 7.7% had moderate knowledge and 90.6% had low knowledge of the monkeypox outbreak. The mean knowledge scores varied among dental hygiene students, practitioners and faculty members. Significant group differences were observed for some questions (p < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Our study concludes that dental hygienists had moderate to low level of knowledge of the monkeypox infection and its implications for oral health and patient care, indicating a need for more education on the subject.

Formulating a Community-Centric Indicator Framework to Quantify One Health Drivers of Antibiotic Resistance: A Preliminary Step towards Fostering 'Antibiotic-Smart Communities'.

Antibiotic resistance (ABR) is increasing the mortality and morbidity associated with infectious diseases, besides increasing the cost of healthcare, saturating health system capacity, and adversely affecting food security. Framing an appropriate narrative and engaging local communities through the 'One Health' approach is essential to complement top-down measures. However, the absence of objective criteria to measure the performance of ABR interventions in community settings makes it difficult to mobilize interest and investment for such interventions. An exercise was therefore carried out to develop an indicator framework for this purpose. A comprehensive list of indicators was developed from experiences gathered through community engagement work in a local panchayat (small administrative area) in Kerala, India and a consultative process with health, veterinary, environment, and development experts. A prioritization exercise was carried out by global experts on ABR, looking at appropriateness, feasibility, and validity. A 15-point indicator framework was designed based on the prioritization process. The final set of indicators covers human health, animal health, environment management, and Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) domains. The indicator framework was piloted in the panchayat (located in Kerala), which attained a score of 34 (maximum 45). The score increased when interventions were implemented to mitigate the ABR drives, indicating that the framework is sensitive to change. The indicator framework was tested in four sites from three other Indian states with different socioeconomic and health profiles, yielding different scores. Those collecting the field data were able to use the framework with minimal training. It is hoped that, this indicator framework can help policymakers broadly understand the factors contributing to ABR and measure the performance of interventions they choose to implement in the community as part of National Action Plan on AMR.