Spain and Brazil report first deaths linked to monkeypox

MADRID • Spain and Brazil reported their first monkeypox-related deaths on Friday, thought to be the first fatalities linked to the current outbreak outside of Africa.

Spain, one of the world's worst-hit countries, reported two deaths with the second one recorded yesterday, less than 24 hours after the first death from the virus was reported by the health ministry. Spain has 4,298 people there infected with the virus.

The identities of the victims have not been released.

In Brazil, a 41-year-old man died of monkeypox, the local authorities said on Friday.

The man, who local media said had serious immune system problems, died on Thursday in Belo Horizonte, the capital of the south-eastern Minas Gerais state.

He was receiving hospital treatment for other serious conditions, the state health ministry said in a statement.

"It is important to underline that he had serious comorbidities, so as not to spread panic in the population," said Minas Gerais health secretary Fabio Baccheretti. "The death rate is very low."

He added that the patient was undergoing cancer treatment.

Brazil's health ministry has recorded almost 1,000 monkeypox cases, mostly in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro states, which are also in the country's south-east.

Early signs of the disease include a high fever, swollen lymph glands and a chickenpox-like rash.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) recently declared the monkeypox outbreak a global health emergency.

According to the WHO, more than 18,000 cases have been detected throughout the world outside of Africa since the beginning of May.

The disease has been detected in 78 countries, with 70 per cent of cases found in Europe and 25 per cent in the Americas, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Wednesday.

Brazil, along with the United States and Canada, is among the countries most affected by monkeypox.

In the Americas, there were more than 5,000 cases reported to date, according to the Pan American Health Organisation.

Brazil has reported 1,066 confirmed cases and 513 suspected cases of the disease, the vast majority (744) in Sao Paulo state, the health ministry said.

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

Dr Ghebreyesus told reporters that the best way to protect against infection was "to reduce the risk of exposure".

"For men who have sex with men, this includes, for the moment, reducing your number of sexual partners, reconsidering sex with new partners, and exchanging contact details with any new partners to enable follow-up if needed," he said.

The disease usually heals by itself after two to three weeks, sometimes taking a month.

Meanwhile, late on Friday, the governor of the state of New York, Mrs Kathy Hochul, declared an emergency over the continued spread of monkeypox.

"I am declaring a state disaster emergency to strengthen our ongoing efforts to confront the monkeypox outbreak," Mrs Hochul tweeted.

She added that more than one in four monkeypox cases in the US are in New York, and the virus was having a disproportionate impact on at-risk groups.

As at Friday, New York state had a total of 1,383 confirmed orthopoxvirus/monkeypox cases.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, REUTERS, XINHUA