The first death related to monkeypox infection has been reported in Spain. The Health Ministry of the Region of Valencia announced on Friday evening that the death of the patient infected with the monkeypox virus (MPXV) was "caused by an infection-related encephalitis (inflammation of the brain)."
The case will continue to be “analyzed to finally confirm the cause”. The Spanish Ministry of Health in Madrid also included the death in the official monkeypox statistics. The Spanish state television broadcaster RTVE and other Spanish media reported that it was also the first MPX death in Europe.
In a recent situation report on the current monkeypox outbreak, the World Health Organization (WHO) recorded a total of five deaths - all of them so far in the African region.
Spain is badly affected by monkeypox
The death in the Spanish case could also be due to possible previous illnesses. According to reports from regional media such as "Levante" on Saturday, the monkeypox patient who died in Valencia is a "man of about 40 years" who was in intensive care in a hospital in the city of Alicante. It was initially unclear whether concomitant diseases were also present in this case.
Spain is one of the countries most affected by the infectious disease in the world. The Ministry of Health announced that there were around 120 hospitalizations in the around 4,300 cases recorded across the country so far.
Brazil also reported its first possible monkeypox-related death on Friday. However, it was a patient with other relevant diseases (comorbidities), said the Ministry of Health in Brasília at a press conference. The case is still under review.
WHO has declared an alert level
In view of the rapid spread of monkeypox, the WHO declared the highest alert level last weekend. The outbreak is an "emergency of international concern," said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in Geneva. The international spread of the infectious disease is very unusual. So far, it has essentially been limited to six African countries.
The WHO classification is intended to encourage the governments of member countries to take measures to contain the outbreak. They are intended to sensitize doctors and clinics to take protective measures in suspected cases and to educate the population on how to protect themselves from infection.
According to the latest WHO records, almost 23,000 cases of monkeypox have been confirmed worldwide. The Europe region is particularly affected with more than 14,000 cases. Of these, 2595 are in Germany. In contrast to the rest of the world, the WHO estimates the risk of infection in Europe to be high, said the WHO chief.
The outbreak is currently focused on men who have sex with men - especially if they change partners more often. However, Tedros warned against stigmatizing this group.
The EU Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides sent a fire letter to the responsible ministers of the EU states on Wednesday. The European Union is the center of the discovered cases, the letter said. "It is no time for complacency and we must continue to work together to control the outbreak."
Against the background of the emergency declared by the WHO, it is important, among other things, that the EU states have solid systems for monitoring the situation and reporting new cases, wrote Kyriakides. That was lacking at the beginning of the corona pandemic.
Effective contact tracing and, if necessary, isolation could also help control the outbreak. But the most important thing is probably public communication about risks. This should be strengthened, "especially to raise awareness - without causing panic or stigmatization".
