With Pride season approaching, how can we respond to the rising rates of mpox? The Centre for Sexual and Gender Minority Health Research would like to extend an invitation to our virtual panel to discuss mpox awareness, public health partnerships and strategies, vaccine uptake, and personal narratives from the mpox outbreak.
Dr. Nathan Lachwosky will present data from Sex Now 2022 and 2024 about communities most and least aware of the mpox virus, vaccine uptake in gay,bisexual and queer men (GBQM), as well as feedback received from community about their wants and needs surrounding the virus at the time of the last outbreak.
Mac Stewart will discuss personal narratives of the 2022 mpox outbreak from interviews conducted with frontline community service providers, infectious disease doctors, public health workers, and GBQM community members. Emerging themes include: both community and health systems partners’ learnings from mpox; including partnerships between community organizations and public health, perception of public health from community, and what can be done for future outbreaks drawing on knowledge and experience from 2022.
Finally, Devan Nambiar will use public health data to address vaccine uptake including the retention rate between first and second doses, the current state of vaccine availability, mpox as an STI, as well as how mpox is transmitted and symptoms of the virus.
There will be a designated Q&A discussion after the presentations. Questions about the event or accessibility requests can be directed to Mac Stewart, Mackenzie.stewart@utoronto.ca