Emergence of smallpox in Central Africa: ethnohistorical perspectives

Mpox (previously known as monkeypox) was the undisputed 2022 health news. The virus responsible for this infection, now referred to as mpox, spread in high-income countries mainly among men having sex with men. However, the history of this virus is not limited to this pandemic event: identified for the first time in Denmark in 1958 in primate colonies, the first human cases were recorded in the Democratic Republic of Congo as early as 1970. It was in this country, then known as Zaire, that research to better understand the ecology and epidemiology of this virus was most systematically undertaken. Even today, the DRC remains a centerpiece for biomedical research into mpox, as it is the country most affected by this infection. Why should one care about the history of this disease? What can history offer in the face of the challenges posed by this emerging pathogen? Three main contributions come to mind immediately. Firstly, contributing to reorienting debates in biomedical research on mpox, by revealing the condition of production of scientific data, documenting over time the ecological changes in which this pathogen emerges, or bringing new questions motivated by historical investigation. Examining a pathogen so little studied by the history of science also holds great promise for the social sciences, insofar as it can serve as a witness to think about the history of global health since the late 1950s, from the eradication of smallpox to the neoliberal revolution, via the placing of emerging infectious diseases on the global agenda as threats to international security and ecological research into zoonotic reservoirs. It is also an opportunity to take a critical look at the production of shifting attention in global health according to the news cycle and the identity of the people affected. The status of mpox is unusual in that it has alternated between being a priority pathogen and a neglected one. Writing a history of mpox today is therefore a twofold challenge: that of contributing to a better understanding of the present, while at the same time helping to document past experiences and recover traces: marks left by the infection, medical research and the whole associated public health infrastructure. The history of mpox does not wait to be written down: this project proposes to seize upon it to put it up for debate as well as to note how it sheds light on a crucial current event and what it reveals about the way public health works today.