Event: Guinea-Bissau

More than half of the mpox cases reported in Guinea-Bissau have been among children, local authorities have said, almost two months since the country announced an epidemic.A national outbreak was declared on 4 July, just over a week after a 27-year-old woman became the first confirmed case of mpox in the west African country. Since then, there have been seven confirmed cases and 46 suspected cases. Half of those patients have been children, with 16 under the age of four.In a statement on Thursday, Unicef warned that because the country’s health surveillance systems were fragile, the virus is probably spreading undetected, leaving even more children at risk.Sandra Martins, the country’s deputy representative for Unicef, said: “This is the first time mpox cases have been reported in Guinea-Bissau, making even a small outbreak a major public health event.”Mpox is an infectious viral disease that can be transmitted through close contact. There have been more than 2,000 mpox-related deaths among tens of thousands of cases recorded across east, central and west Africa since January 2024.Health workers say the Clade variants are consistent with viruses circulating in neighbouring countries, meaning that a risk of cross‑border transmission in the region remains strong. The vast majority of confirmed cases are in the Bissau autonomous sector, where the capital is, while one case is in the nearby Biombo area. No deaths have been reported to date.Dr Magda Robalo, a former health minister who led the country’s Covid-19 response, said that to eliminate the “biggest gaps in the health system right now”, increased surveillance would have to be prioritised and frontline capacity reinforced.“Even though the numbers are small, new cases have appeared intermittently over several weeks, which means transmission is ongoing,” said Robalo, who is also co-founder of the Institute for Global Health and Development and former…