Spain Records First Death From Monkeypox

Spain has reported the death of one person from monkeypox, which Spanish media said was a first for the European nation.

Spain’s Health Ministry on Friday said 120 people had been admitted to the hospital so far with monkeypox and one had died. The ministry gave no further details regarding the death, but Spain’s state news agency Efe and other media outlets said it was the country’s first monkeypox death.

The ministry also said Spain had 4,298 people infected with the virus. Of that, some 3,500 cases were of men who had had sex with other men while 64 were women.

Experts suspect that monkeypox outbreaks in Europe and North America were ignited by sex at two raves in Belgium and Spain.

Spain is one of the world’s worst-hit countries, with 4,298 cases of the virus, according to the health ministry’s emergency and alert coordination center.

The health ministry spokesperson declined to give further details on the patient who died. An autopsy is due to take place.

Some 18,000 cases have now been found in 78 countries across the world and a week ago, the current outbreak is by far the biggest involving the virus and it’s been designated by the World Health Organisation as a global health emergency.

About 70 percent of the latest cases are being found in Europe and 25 percent in the Americas, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Wednesday.

As cases surge globally, the WHO on Wednesday called on the group currently most affected by the virus – men who have sex with men – to limit their sexual partners.

Monkeypox usually heals by itself after two to three weeks, although recovery can sometimes take a month.