Pathogens loom large in the life of anyone who has spent time in the developing world. Measures are taken every day to avoid bad water and vectors. I woke up wondering when the last time the western industrialized world was gripped by a pervasive threat of an infectious disease.

There is a relationship between the geography of pandemics and epidemics, between socioeconomic status and treatment standards, between poverty and affliction with curable diseases.

Cholera largely disappeared from the United States over a century ago. And yet it is a life-threatening problem elsewhere.

HIV/AIDS no longer gets the same headlines globally because it disproportionately impacts sub-Saharan Africa .

Well-heeled global citizens everywhere can tell you within minutes of Apple launching a new phone, all of its incremental features, they can tell you the storyline of the Marvel movie on the same Friday.

Meanwhile for years they are unaware of looming infectious disease threats.

Ebola ravaged Western Africa for years, remaining in the mind of most elsewhere a distant problem associated with poor African villages.

Most are blissfully unaware that had it not been contained in Lagos, it could’ve been a much bigger tragedy than it was.

I hope we all come out of this pandemic realizing that in a hot, crowded and interconnected world, we can not afford to be parochial. If not for altruistic reasons then for selfish ones. A crisis that hits any part of the world or segment of society also affects us.