Risk communication and public engagement for Mpox preparedness in Cameroon: Building public trust and preventing panic

This research looks at how to share public‑health warnings and information during disease outbreaks, with a focus on preparing for Mpox in Cameroon. It follows the main parts of the National Mpox Risk Communication and Public Engagement (RCPE) framework and builds a model that shows how trust, messages in different languages, and false information spread through varied communication networks. The model treats communities, local leaders, and the many ways people receive news—online, on TV or radio, and small local networks—as a multi‑layered complex network. By running simulations on this network, we can see how quickly and reliably important health alerts travel. The study checks how language differences and the amount

of trust each node (person or group) has affect how far the messages go and how long they take to arrive. We use a modified Susceptible‑Infected‑Recovered (SIR) model, not for disease spread but for how beliefs move through the network. This gives a quantitative way to improve the network layout, cut down panic, and boost public participation. The simulation results point to practical steps for building strong, trust‑focused communication systems that work in places with limited resources and many languages.

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