• Friday, 22 November 2024

Spain records first monkeypox death

Spain records first monkeypox death
Madrid, 30 July 2022 (dpa/MIA) - Spain has recorded its first monkeypox death, the country's health ministry said Friday. State broadcaster RTVE and other Spanish media said it also marked the first death from monkeypox in Europe. The infected person died in the Valencia region in Spain's northeast. The World Health Organization (WHO) noted five deaths in its situation report from earlier in the week - all of them were in Africa. Brazil also reported a possible monkeypox death on Friday. The case is still being analysed and the patient had other relevant comorbidities, the health ministry in Brasilia said in a press conference. Further information on the person who died in Spain was not initially available. Spain is is one of the countries most affected by the illness worldwide. Of the 4,298 cases recorded so far in the country, only 120 have required hospitalization. The WHO declared the monkeypox outbreak across dozens of countries an "emergency of international concern" last Saturday. At the time, WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said more than 16,000 cases in 75 countries had been detected, and that Europe was particularly badly affected. The virus has almost exclusively infected men.