Professor Fiona Lyons:

We have sought to be proactive, responsive and nuanced to the needs of the affected community and we have taken a team approach to that. This has involved getting feedback from the community around where the needs are, what the questions and fears are and trying to ensure we get messages out to people that debunk the myths and ensure individuals are not afraid to come forward for assessment and testing as they need it. A really important part of the communication has been to get the message across that when people have an opportunity to self-book for vaccination, they will not be asked to declare their risks. This will be a self-identification process and those risks will be captured nowhere. That is a really important part of ensuring people do not feel stigmatised in this regard.

We have developed community well-being assessments and services and are providing care for individuals with monkeypox infection who are isolating at home. The HSE-funded empower psychological supports provide individuals with a number to contact if they are experiencing a lot of distress, which is something that we all, as clinicians, have identified if we have been calling people over a weekend, say, to see how they are doing from a clinical perspective. We have noticed they are struggling sometimes with the social isolation and perhaps some stigma they are experiencing by virtue of having the infection. That is why the community and psychological supports were put in place for those individuals.

I have nothing further to add other than to reiterate our approach has been very nuanced, responsive and proactive.