MPCNN: a novel approach for detecting human Monkeypox from skin lesion images leveraging deep neural network

Abstract

The global healthcare scenario encounters a substantial challenge caused by the widespread outbreak of Monkeypox affecting over 65 countries. Limited availability of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests and biochemical assays necessitates alternative strategies. This study explores the viability of computer-aided identification of Monkeypox through the analysis of skin lesion images, offering a potential solution, particularly in resource-constrained settings. Employing data augmentation techniques, we augment the dataset to enhance its robustness. Subsequently, we utilize various pre-trained deep learning models, including EfficientNetB3, VGG16, ResNet50, AlexNet, and EfficientNet for classification tasks related to Monkeypox and other diseases. The achieved accuracies for these models are 98.48%, 69.19%, 91.41%, 78.38%, and 94.44%, respectively. We introduce a novel modified convolutional neural network (CNN) architecture named MPCNN to further improve performance. Our proposed MPCNN model demonstrates exceptional accuracy, precisely identifying Monkeypox patients with a remarkable precision of 99.49%. This technological advancement in disease identification holds significant promise for enhancing healthcare strategies and response mechanisms in the context of global health concerns.