As part of a series for Science magazine about decolonizing science around the world, journalists Jon Cohen and Abdullahi Tsanni profiled Christian Happi and his African Centre of Excellence for Genomics of Infectious Diseases (ACEGID), which is based at Redeemer's University in Ede, Nigeria.
Launched in 2014, ACEGID has become a leading gene sequencing center in Africa and has helped track dangerous viruses in Nigeria and neighboring countries. It also is now a major force in building a stronger community of African researchers.
This project also investigates the origin of the mpox outbreak that spread worldwide in 2022, mainly through men who have sex with men (MSM). In 2017, Nigerian researchers discovered the first compelling evidence that the monkeypox virus transmitted through sex, but that outbreak supposedly was contained and received little international attention. MSM is highly stigmatized in Nigeria.
Was the virus cryptically spreading in Nigeria's MSM community from 2018 to 2022? And why wasn’t a vaccine made available?
