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News > World

First Monkeypox Deaths Outside Africa Reported

  • Until July 22 there were five confirmed deaths, all in Africa, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Jul. 29, 2022.

    Until July 22 there were five confirmed deaths, all in Africa, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Jul. 29, 2022. | Photo: Twitter/@BiIndia

Published 29 July 2022
Opinion

On Friday, Brazil and Spain reported the first monkeypox-related deaths outside Africa in the present outbreak. 

This comes in less than a week following the World Health Organization's (WHO) declaration of the monkeypox outbreak as a global health emergency.

RELATED: 
Over 18 000 Monkeypox Cases Worldwide - WHO

Brazil informed of the death of a man aged 41 who had lymphoma and a weakened immune system, according to the Ministry of Health, which detailed that the patient hospitalized in the city of Belo Horizonte, in the southeast of the country, died of septic shock after being transferred to the intensive care unit. 

With over 5 000 cases reported so far, according to the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), Brazil is among the countries in the Americas most affected by the virus, including the U.S. and Canada.    

On the other hand, authorities in Spain, reporting the death shortly after Brazil, declined to comment on further details about the deceased. This is the first death relating to monkeypox reported in the country and the first known in Europe during the current outbreak.

Authorities from Brazil and Spain confirmed the first death in each country from monkeypox. Brazil has 978 positive cases and Spain has 4 thousand. The WHO reported five deaths in Africa and 18,000 infections in 78 countries. 

The Health Ministry in Spain said in its latest report that it had confirmed 4 298 cases in the country, with only 120 of the 3 750 patients it had information on having been hospitalized, representing 3.2 percent. 

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), about 10 percent of patients worldwide have been hospitalized in the current outbreak, and until July 22, there were five confirmed deaths, all in Africa.

Of the cases notified outside the African region, 98 percent have occurred in homosexual men; however, PAHO warned this week that anyone can get infected no matter gender or sexual orientation.

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