Monkeypox and its research trends in Arab countries: A brief bibliometric analysis

Dear editor,

As of July 26th, 2022, Monkeypox (MPX), declared as public health emergency of international concern by the World Health Organization (WHO) [1], has infected 16958 confirmed cases across 72 countries [2]. In Arab countries, it has affected UAE (n = 16), followed by Lebanon (n = 1), Saudi Arabia (n = 1), Morocco (n = 1) and Qatar (n = 1) [3]. Also, Qatar, an Arab country, will host the most important sporting mega-event, the 2022 FIFA world cup which will grab more attention of the Arab countries by the end of 2022 [4]. Hence, we aim to investigate what has been published and researched on monkeypox by Arab countries. As far we know, this is the first bibliometric analysis of monkeypox in the Arab world.

A systematic search was performed in PubMed and Scopus from the beginning until July 26th, 2022, using the keyword “monkeypox” as the main operator in addition to the names of Arab countries. Articles were eligible for the analysis if they were only related to monkeypox and included at least one Arab author with at least one Arab affiliation. Data on the number of published articles, Arab authors, female authors, Arab countries and affiliations, study design, name, and number of journals were extracted. Only 17 monkeypox-related articles with both Arab authors and affiliations in PubMed and 98 in Scopus were initially screened by two independent authors, resulting in identifying 30 articles. While reviewing the full text, 16 articles were finally included.

The first published monkeypox-related article was in 2010, and the year with the greatest number of publications was 2022 (n = 13) (Fig. 1 (C) ). Annals of Medicine and Surgery was the most published articles (n = 3). Journals including Travel Medicine and Infectious Disease, Emerging Infectious Diseases and International Journal of Surgery were equally the second most involved journals with published articles; 2 per each. Of the overall number of publications, reviews were the most common type 25% (n = 4), followed by editorials and short communications which were equal; 18.75% (n = 3) for each type of them, followed by, surveillance, and correspondence, representing 12.5% (n = 2) per each type (Table 1 ). International foreign collaboration was found in 81.25% (n = 13) articles of 16 total articles, reflecting the high collaboration between Arab and foreign authors. One author 56.25% (n = 9) per article was the most common regarding the number of authors per article while females represented 21.05% (n = 8) of the overall number of authors (n = 38) with one female per article being the most common (n = 6), followed by 2 females (n = 1). Only 12.5% (n = 2) studies reported receiving funding. The most common Arab affiliations were both Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities (Aswan) and the National Food Safety Authority (NFSA) (Aswan) in Egypt and Tishreen University in Syria, representing 7.89% (n = 3), respectively. Most of the authors affiliated with Sudan (n = 12), followed by Egypt (n = 10) and both Saudi Arabia and Syria (n = 5) (Fig. 1 (A)). However, the most contributing county was Egypt participating in 6 studies followed by Sudan and KSA with 3 articles for each (Fig. 1 (B)). When searching monkeypox global articles as of July 26th, 2022, 1639 monkeypox-related articles found compared to 16 monkeypox related articles conducted or co-authored in the Arab world, representing only 0.98% of overall monkeypox-related articles.

Fig. 1.

Arab world-related scientific production on monkeypox. (A). Number of Arab authors per country. (B). Number of studies per country. (C). Number of Arab-related publications by year on monkeypox in PubMed and Scopus.

Table 1.

Authors-related information.

Variable	% (n)
Study design
Review	25% (4)
Editorial	18.75% (3)
Short communication	18.75% (3)
Correspondence	12.5% (2)
Surveillance	12.5% (2)
Commentary	6.25% (1)
Letter	6.25% (1)
Journals name
Annals of Medicine and Surgery	18.75% (3)
Travel Medicine and Infectious Disease	12.5% (2)
Emerging Infectious Diseases	12.5% (2)
International journal of Surgery	12.5% (2)
International Journal of Infectious Diseases	6.25% (1)
Annals of Clinical Microbiology and Antimicrobials	6.25% (1)
Drugs	6.25% (1)
Infectious Diseases of Poverty	6.25% (1)
International Journal of Infectious Diseases	6.25% (1)
Journal of Medical Virology	6.25% (1)
Transboundary and Emerging Diseases	6.25% (1)
Number of authors per study	Number of studies
7	1
6	1
5	1
4	1
3	1
2	2
1	9
Arab author affiliations
Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities (Aswan)	7.89% (3)
National Food Safety Authority (NFSA) (Aswan)	7.89% (3)
Tishreen University	7.89% (3)
Kafrelsheikh University	5.26% (2)
Federal Ministry of Health (Khartoum)	5.26% (2)
National Public Health Laboratory (Khartoum)	5.26% (2)
University of Saint Joseph of Beirut	5.26% (2)
Johns Hopkins Aramco Healthcare	2.63% (1)
Tishreen University Hospital	2.63% (1)
Damascus University	2.63% (1)
King Saud University	2.63% (1)
Ministry of Health Saudi Arabia	2.63% (1)
Al-Faisal University	2.63% (1)
Mohammed Bin Rashid University of Medicine and Health Sciences	2.63% (1)
University of Algiers	2.63% (1)
The Hashemite University	2.63% (1)
Suez Canal University	2.63% (1)
Tanta University Hospitals	2.63% (1)
Alexandria University	2.63% (1)
World Health Organization Country Office (Khartoum)	2.63% (1)
Médecins Sans Frontières France Office in Sudan	2.63% (1)
University of Khartoum	2.63% (1)
University Muscat	2.63% (1)
Aswan University	2.63% (1)
Lebanese American University School of Medicine	2.63% (1)
Taif University	2.63% (1)
Beni-Suef University	2.63% (1)
Ministry of Health (Jeddah)	2.63% (1)

This low number of published articles reflects the scientific gap between the Arab countries and the world, especially advanced countries. Thus, the following question should be answered: are the Arab countries ready to face the possible monkeypox outbreaks in a timely and efficient manner? The low number of research papers in Arab countries is obvious with most of the published articles being opinion-based articles (i.e., editorials, letters, etc.) with very low published original research papers 12.5% (n = 2).

To conclude, Arab countries should find urgent solutions for the recent research gap in the monkeypox field, especially in the context of the current several outbreaks across many countries globally [3]. Based on the high international collaboration between Arab and foreign authors, they should focus on conducting original studies to address the questions about the different aspects of monkeypox including the recent specific causes and origin of the recent surge of monkeypox, tracing the cases, preventive measures, treatments, and vaccines. They should learn how to deal with monkeypox in a timely and efficient manner. Most importantly, Qatar should be well-prepared and proactive in this since it will host an important sporting event by the end of this year, the 2022 FIFA world cup [4]. Arab countries cannot disregard the monkeypox several global outbreaks. they should contribute to the global research on monkeypox through the production of quality research papers, especially the original ones.

Ethical approval

Not applicable.

Sources of funding

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

Author contribution

All authors equally contributed to the analysis and writing of the manuscript.

Declaration of competing interest

All authors declare that there are no commercial or financial relationships that could, in any way, lead to a potential conflict of interest.