Brazil and Spain have reported the first monkeypox-related deaths outside of Africa as the outbreak continues to spread across various countries worldwide.
On Friday, Spanish authorities reported the death of a person from the illness, which media said was a first for the European Union nation. The country's Health Ministry, in its latest report on the virus, said that 120 people had been admitted to the hospital so far with monkeypox, with one fatality.
Monkeypox Fatalities
However, the ministry did not give any further details regarding the monkeypox-related death and said that Spain had 4,298 people infected with the virus. Out of the confirmed cases, some 3,500 infections were of men who had had sex with other men, with only 64 women.
Health experts suspect that monkeypox outbreaks in Europe and North America were sparked by sex at two raves in Belgium and Spain. The current outbreak is by far the biggest involving the monkeypox virus and it has already been designated by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a global health emergency, as per The Hill.
In Brazil, a 41-year-old man became the country's first fatality from the monkeypox virus outside of Africa. Despite the fatalities, infections are usually mild and the risk to the general population is relatively low.
The country's Health Ministry said that the fatality suffered from lymphoma and a weakened immune system, and "comorbidities aggravated his condition" with monkeypox. So far, Brazil has reported 1,066 confirmed cases and 513 suspected cases of monkeypox.
According to BBC, data from Brazil's Health Ministry indicated that more than 98% of confirmed cases were in men who had had sex with other men. On the other hand, Spain's report said that 3.2% of monkeypox patients had been hospitalized.
Vaccine Availability
The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said that there are currently 21,148 cases of monkeypox worldwide. The virus is a member of the same family of viruses as smallpox, although it is much less severe and the chances of infection are low.
It is normally found in remote parts of central and west African countries, near tropical rainforests. Health officials are now recommending people at the highest risk of exposure to the virus should be offered a vaccine.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said last week that the declaration of the outbreak as a global health emergency would help speed up the development of vaccines and the implementation of measures to limit the spread of the virus.
However, the health official added that the outbreak now can be stopped with the right strategies in the right groups of people. The health agency is issuing recommendations that it hopes will spur countries to take action to stop the transmission of the monkeypox virus and protest the people who are at risk.
The situation comes as the LGBTQ community has expressed concerns over the government's response to the outbreak and is calling for vaccines to be widely available. Samuel Garrett-Pate said that state and local public health agencies were doing their best to address the situation but noted that the federal government has not done enough, CNN reported.
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