Monkeypox kills first victim in Europe as Spain confirms fatal case just a week after WHO declared it a global emergency
- Spain confirms the first monkeypox death since the epidemic began
- The news marks the first confirmed death in Europe from the viral disease
- Spain is the continent’s leading nation in terms of confirmed cases
By Gerard Cousins for MailOnline
Posted: 20:09, July 29, 2022 | Updated: 20:09, July 29, 2022
Spain has confirmed its first monkeypox death – and Europe’s first death from the virus.
The five previously reported deaths were in African countries.
Spain’s health ministry confirmed the death today, revealing that 4,298 cases had been notified so far.
No details were given about the deceased and when this happened. Only 64 of the confirmed cases in Spain are women.
Earlier this month, when the number of confirmed cases in Spain reached just over 3,000, it was identified as the world leader in monkeypox.
The earliest cases in May were linked to a gay sauna in Madrid and the Pride festival in Gran Canaria.
Last week, the World Health Organization declared monkeypox a global health emergency, meaning it now views the current outbreak as a significant enough threat that a coordinated international response is needed.
Monkeypox has affected more than 16,000 people in 75 countries, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus made the decision to issue the declaration despite a lack of consensus among experts working on the UN health agency’s Emergency Committee.
It was the first time the head of the UN health agency had taken such action.
“We have an outbreak that has spread rapidly around the world through new modes of transmission that we understand very little about and that meet the criteria in international health regulations,” Tedros said.
“I know that this is not an easy or straightforward process and that there are differing opinions among committee members,” he added.
The WHO announcement came as 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”.
The WHO has previously declared emergencies for public health crises such as the Covid-19 pandemic, the 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa, the 2016 Zika virus in Latin America and the ongoing polio eradication effort.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (above) made the decision to issue the declaration despite a lack of consensus among experts working on the UN health agency’s Emergency Committee
Although monkeypox has been established in parts of central and western Africa for decades, it was not known to have spread outside the continent or spread widely among humans until May, when authorities discovered dozens of separate 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 developed a rash in the mouth or around the genitals or anus.
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