Spain reported its first monkeypox-related death on Friday, marking what is thought to be the first death linked to the current outbreak in Europe.
Spain is one of the world’s worst-hit countries and 4,298 people have been infected with the virus, according to the health ministry’s emergency and alert coordination centre.
“Of the 3,750 (monkeypox) patients with available information, 120 cases were hospitalised (3.2 percent) and one case has died,” the centre said in a report.
An official would not give the specific cause of death for the fatality pending the outcome of an autopsy.
The WHO last Saturday declared the rapidly spreading outbreak a global health emergency, its highest level of alert.
In its latest report, the Spanish health ministry said 4,298 cases had been confirmed in the country, only 64 of these were women.
According to the WHO, more than 18,000 cases have been detected throughout the world outside of Africa since the beginning of May.
It has been detected in 78 countries with 70 percent of cases found in Europe and 25 percent in the Americas, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Wednesday(July 27).
