MADRID – The Spanish Ministry of Health has confirmed the first death from monkeypox. In total, the country has 4,298 registered cases of the virus.
This is evident from data from the National Epidemiological Surveillance Network (RENAVE). Of the 3,750 infected people for whom information is available, one hundred and twenty were hospitalised (3.2%) and one died. This makes it the first fatality in Spain from this disease. Last week, the WHO declared an international health emergency over the virus.
The Health Alerts and Emergency Situations Coordination Centre released the latest data collected on people infected with monkeypox in Spain this Friday.
Of the total of confirmed cases, more than 4,000 were men and only 64 were women. The age varies between 10 months and 88 years, with an average age of 37 years.
Sexual or close non-sexual contact
According to this data, 3,458 of the men had sex with men (out of 4,148 patients for whom this type of information is available). Information is also available on the most likely transmission mechanism in 2,253 cases. From these, 82.1% were through close contact in the context of a sexual relationship and 10.5% through close non-sexual contact.
Mass Events
Regarding attendance at mass events, of the 3,137 cases with information on this variable, 560 attended an event on the dates before symptom onset.
Brazil reported its first death from the monkeypox virus shortly before Spain. Furthermore, in the current monkeypox outbreak, it would be the sixth death and the first outside Africa. Here, the victim was a 41-year-old man who had cancer and a weakened immune system.
Symptoms
The symptoms of an infection with the virus can include headache, fever, muscle aches and general malaise. Only after a few days do blisters appear on the skin from the rash. Usually, people don’t get very sick from an infection. The virus spreads through skin-to-skin contact. Consequently, anyone can get it.
