Spain reports: First death from monkeypox in Europe

Spain reported its first death linked to monkeypox on Friday, the health ministry said. Radio Free Europe.

This is the first known death in Europe and, in the current outbreak, the second outside Africa.

The first death outside Africa was reported on Friday in Brazil.

There are currently 4.298 confirmed cases in Spain. According to the ministry's data, 120 people are in the hospital, or 3,2 percent of those infected.

The first deaths outside Africa come less than seven days after the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the monkeypox outbreak a crisis of the highest level.

So far, the WHO has reported five deaths in Africa.

Although monkeypox has been established in parts of central and west Africa for decades, until May of this year it was not known to cause large outbreaks outside the continent or to spread between humans.

Monkeypox belongs to the same family of viruses as smallpox. This disease usually has mild to moderate symptoms, including fever, fatigue, and painful skin lesions that resolve within a few weeks.

According to WHO data, the death rate from monkeypox, since the first case was discovered in the early seventies in the Congo, was up to 11 percent, and recently it has varied between three and six percent.

Earlier, the WHO said that more than 18.000 cases of monkeypox have been reported worldwide in 78 countries, most of them in Europe.