Two young men infected with monkeypox have died in Spain. These are the first deaths related to the pathogen in Europe. It is still being investigated whether previous illnesses contributed to the cause.
Spain has reported two deaths related to the monkeypox virus (MPXV) in a few hours. The Ministry of Health in Madrid announced the death of another patient later in the day after reporting the first death on Friday evening. These are the first deaths recorded in Europe related to the rapidly spreading infectious disease. Both were reported to the World Health Organization (WHO) and the EU Commission, the Ministry of Health wrote.
According to the regional authorities responsible, the first case was registered in the Valencia region, in the east, and the second in Andalusia, in the south of the country. Both patients had been hospitalized with encephalitis caused by the infection. The Health Ministry of the Region of Valencia announced on Friday evening that the patient's death there was "caused by infection-related encephalitis (inflammation of the brain)." The case will be further "analyzed to finally confirm the cause". The regional newspaper "Levante" wrote that it was a "man of about 40 years old" who was in intensive care in a hospital in the city of Alicante.
In Andalusia, the regional Ministry of Health announced over the weekend that the second fatality was a 31-year-old who had been admitted to the intensive care unit at the University Hospital in Cordoba with meningoencephalitis caused by the infection. The deaths could possibly be due to previous illnesses. However, it is still unclear in both cases whether concomitant diseases were present. The newspaper "El País" wrote that the medical institute "Instituto de Salud Carlos III" in Madrid will examine tissue samples to better understand the cause of the deaths.
A total of eight deaths from monkeypox have been reported worldwide since May. The first five had been reported from Africa, where the disease was first detected in humans in 1970. In addition to Spain, Brazil also reported a death on Friday. However, the Ministry of Health in Brasília said it was a patient with other diseases.
According to the latest report from the Spanish Center for Health Emergencies, published on Saturday, 3,750 people are currently suffering from monkeypox in the country, and 120 of them are being treated in hospital. 4298 are said to have been infected so far. Spain is one of the countries hardest hit by the disease. According to the head of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, around 70 percent of the 18,000 monkeypox infections reported since May have been found in Europe and around 25 percent on the American continent.
Typical symptoms of the disease include high fever, swollen lymph nodes and pustules similar to chickenpox. The disease is transmitted through close body and skin contact. In contrast to human smallpox, which has been eradicated since 1980, monkeypox is usually much milder; most people recover from the infection within a few weeks.
In view of the spread of the infectious disease, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared a global health emergency last Saturday. According to the Robert Koch Institute, 2,268 cases of illness were registered in Germany by the end of last week.
