On May 18, 2022, the first case of monkeypox in nearly 20 years was recorded in the United States. Prior to this, the virus was for the most part contained within its endemic countries such as Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Nigeria, and South Sudan, having been present in these areas since 1970. Despite the disease’s prevalence in Central and West Africa, it found itself largely ignored by Western media as a pathogen of risk as it took hold in African nations, many of whom lacked the proper health infrastructure to effectively address any sort of disease. Even with a long period of consistent infection in Africa, monkeypox was continuously ignored by the developed world.