Spain and Brazil report first monkeypox deaths outside Africa in current outbreak

Spain reported on Friday its first monkeypox-related death, the Spanish Health Ministry said, in what is Europe’s first known death and the second outside of Africa in the current outbreak.

Brazil reported earlier on Friday the first monkeypox-related death outside the African continent in the current outbreak.

In its latest report, the Spanish Health Ministry said 4,298 cases had been confirmed in the country. Of the 3,750 patients it had information on, it said 120 have been hospitalised – accounting for 3.2% – and one has died, without providing further details.

Brazil reported the death of a 41-year-old man who, according to the health ministry, also suffered from lymphoma and a weakened immune system.

“The comorbidities aggravated his condition,” the ministry said, adding the patient was hospitalized in the southeastern city of Belo Horizonte and died from septic shock after being taken to the intensive care unit.

The first monkeypox death in the Americas came less than a week after the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the rapidly spreading outbreak a global health emergency, its highest level of alert. 

The WHO had so far reported only five confirmed monkeypox deaths, all in Africa.

Brazil, along with the United States and Canada, is among the countries most affected by monkeypox in the Americas, where more than 5,000 cases have been reported to date, according to the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO).

PAHO said in a press briefing this week that almost all cases had been reported among men who have sex with men between the ages of 25 and 45, but warned that anyone can get the disease regardless of their gender or sexual orientation.