Spain has confirmed its second monkeypox death as the number of cases worldwide continues to rise, and just days after the WHO declared the outbreak a “global health emergency”.
The country’s Health Ministry confirmed the death on Saturday as its number of infections grew to 4,298, making it the world leader in the number of cases outside the US. The districts of Madrid and Catalonia have the most cases, with 1,656 and 1,406 respectively.
At least 120 monkeypox carriers have required hospitalization in Spain, El Mundo reported, accounting for 3.2 percent of cases, as an expert warned more deaths could be expected.
It comes after a “middle-aged” man from Alicante, in the Valencian Community, became the first death in Europe on Friday.
He has not been identified, but health officials said he died of disease-associated encephalitis, a serious condition that causes the brain to swell.
It followed the death of a 41-year-old man in Brazil. He had severe immune system complications and was hospitalized at the Eduardo de Menezes Hospital in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, at the time of his death on Thursday.
Eight deaths have now been reported as part of the outbreak, five in African countries where the virus is endemic.
Monkeypox has affected more than 16,000 people in 75 countries, according to a count by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Several countries have started to launch vaccination campaigns targeting men who have sex with men, who remain the most at-risk group (pictured: Long queues at Guy’s Hospital in central London on Saturday)
Eight deaths have now been reported as part of the outbreak, with five in African countries where the virus is endemic.
Spanish experts said the strain of the virus currently affecting the country is from Nigeria and is less deadly than that seen in other parts of the continent.
But Alfredo Corell, Professor of Immunology at the University of Valladolid warned: ‘We are faced with the possibility of seeing more deaths’.
While the average age of patients in Spain is 37 years, the age of those infected ranges from 10 months to 88.
Several countries have begun to launch vaccination campaigns targeting men who have sex with men, who remain the most at-risk group.
Huge queues for a walk-in jab service were photographed at Guy’s Hospital in central London on Saturday, with similar scenes witnessed last weekend.
It comes after sexual health services, particularly in the capital, have been forced to cut or even suspend visits and other services as they struggle to deal with the frontline of the outbreak.
People queue to receive monkeypox vaccines during a pop-up clinic at Guy’s Hospital in central London on July 30, 2022
Last week, the World Health Organization declared monkeypox a global health emergency, meaning it now considers the current outbreak to be a significant enough threat that a coordinated international response is needed.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus made the decision to issue the statement despite a lack of consensus among experts on the UN health agency’s emergency committee.
It was the first time the head of the United Nations health agency had taken such action.
“We have an outbreak that has spread around the world rapidly through new modes of transmission about which we understand too little and that meets the criteria of international health regulations,” Tedros said.
“I know that this has not been an easy or direct process and that there are divergent opinions among the members of the commission,” he added.
The WHO announcement came after the virus spread to more than 75 countries. Director-General Dr Tedros said at the time that the risk of people contracting the virus in Europe was “high”.
WHO has previously declared emergencies for public health crises such as the Covid-19 pandemic, the 2014 West African Ebola outbreak, the Zika virus in Latin America in 2016, and the ongoing effort to eradicate polio.
Although monkeypox has been established in parts of central and western Africa for decades, it was not known to spread beyond the continent or move widely between people until May, when authorities they detected dozens of individual outbreaks in Europe, North America and elsewhere.
Traditionally, people with Monkeypox have developed fever, swollen lymph nodes, headaches and muscle aches.
Symptoms are followed by a rash that starts on the face or mouth and then spreads to other parts of the body, especially the hands and feet.
However, in some recent cases, patients first experienced a rash in the mouth or around the genitals or anus.
Anyone can spread monkeypox, but the current outbreak outside of Africa is concentrated almost exclusively among men who have sex with men.
The virus is spread primarily through intimate skin-to-skin contact, usually with someone who has an active rash, as well as through contact with contaminated clothing or bedding. It is not as easily transmitted as the SARS-CoV-2 virus that caused the COVID-19 pandemic.
‘Covid is transmitted through the respiratory tract and is highly infectious. This does not appear to be the case with monkeypox,” said Dr. Martin Hirsch of Massachusetts General Hospital.