BackgroundMonkeypox (mpox) is a zoonotic infectious disease caused by the mpox virus and characterized by painful body lesions, fever, headaches, and exhaustion. Since the report of the first human case of mpox in Africa, there have been multiple outbreaks, even in nonendemic regions of the world. The emergence and re-emergence of mpox highlight the critical need for early detection, which has spurred research into applying deep learning to improve diagnostic capabilities.ObjectiveThis research aims to develop a robust hybrid long short-term memory (LSTM)-convolutional neural network (CNN) model with a Convolutional Block Attention Module (CBAM) to provide a potential tool for the early detection of mpox.MethodsA hybrid LSTM-CNN multi-stream deep learning model with CBAM was developed and trained using the Mpox Skin Lesion Dataset Version 2.0 (MSLD v2.0). We employed LSTM layers for preliminary feature extraction, CNN layers for further feature extraction, and CBAM for feature conditioning. The model was evaluated with standard metrics, and gradient-weighted class activation maps (Grad-CAM) and local interpretable model-agnostic explanations (LIME) were used for interpretability.ResultsThe model achieved an F1-score, recall, and precision of 94%, an area under the curve of 95.04%, and an accuracy of 94%, demonstrating competitive performance compared to the state-of-the-art models. This robust performance highlights the reliability of our model. LIME and Grad-CAM offered insights into the model's decision-making process.ConclusionThe hybrid LSTM-CNN multi-stream deep learning model with CBAM successfully detects mpox, providing a promising early detection tool that can be integrated into web and mobile platforms for convenient and widespread use.
