After more than two years of the Covid-19 pandemic, the emergence of a new epidemic has surprised many people. However, the global outbreak of monkeypox was predictable and perhaps could have been avoided.

Back in 2017, Dimie Ogoina pointed out a possible outbreak of monkeypox in Nigeria and sounded the alarm. In 2019, a scientific study was published in the Lancet Infectious Diseases discussing the findings. But until the disease reached Europe and North America, little attention was paid to the steadily rising cases in Nigeria. It wasn't until recently that NPR picked up on the issue.  

In this episode, we talk with Dimie and discuss what lessons he draws from the monkeypox outbreak for improved pandemic preparedness worldwide. Dimie, a member of WHO's Monkeypox Emergency Committee, questions the double standard in the global science community and a persistent inequality in responses between North and South. Still, findings from the global South often find little regard and solutions from the global North are repeatedly not shared globally. In African countries where monkeypox is endemic, there are little to no vaccines, while European and North American countries have started systematically vaccinated at-risk groups.  

The New York Times rightly asks what the world has learned from Covid-19 if we repeat the same mistakes of ignoring and excluding valuable inputs. Diseases know no borders. Now more than ever, we would do well to shed our Western hubris, in order to be prepared for the many future challenges. 

https://globalperspectives.org/en/