Spain and Brazil reported one death from monkeypox in what are believed to be the first deaths linked to an outbreak of the disease that began in early May. Spain is one of the worst-hit countries in the world, with 4,298 cases of the virus, according to the health ministry’s emergency and alert coordination center. “Of the 3,750 (monkeypox) patients with available information, 120 cases were hospitalized (3.2 percent) and one case died,” the center said in a report Friday. A health ministry spokesman declined to provide further details about the patient who died. An autopsy is expected to be performed. In Brazil, the patient who died was a 41-year-old man. The health ministry said he also suffered from lymphoma and a weakened immune system. He had been admitted to a hospital in the southeastern city of Belo Horizonte and died of septic shock after being taken to the intensive care unit. “It is important to emphasize that he had serious comorbidities, so as not to spread panic among the population. The mortality rate is very low” for monkey pox, said Minas Gerais Health Minister Fabio Baccheretti.
Global health hazard
Brazil’s health ministry has recorded nearly 1,000 cases of monkeypox, mostly in the states of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, also in the southeast of the country. Along with the United States and Canada, it is one of the countries most affected by monkeypox in the Americas. Early signs of the disease include a high fever, swollen lymph nodes, and a rash that looks like chickenpox. The first case in the current outbreak was confirmed in the UK on May 7, and the World Health Organization (WHO) said the emergence of hundreds of cases outside the central and west African countries where the virus is endemic suggests it has been spreading unnoticed for some time. About 18,000 cases have now been identified in 78 countries around the world, and a week ago, the WHO declared the outbreak a global health emergency. About 70 percent of the latest cases are in Europe and 25 percent in the Americas, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Wednesday. As cases rise worldwide, the WHO on Wednesday called on the group most affected by the virus – men who have sex with men – to limit their sexual partners. The disease usually heals on its own after two to three weeks, although recovery can sometimes take a month. A smallpox vaccine from Danish drug company Bavarian Nordic, marketed as Jynneos in the United States and Imvanex in Europe, has also been found to protect against monkeypox.
