Sharjah24 – AFP: Spain on Saturday reported its second monkeypox-related death, bringing to three the number of fatalities linked to the current outbreak outside of Africa.
Spain and Brazil both announced what they believed to be their first deaths related to the virus on Friday.
It is however unclear if monkeypox actually caused any of the three fatalities, with Spanish authorities still carrying out autopsies and Brazilian authorities saying its deceased patient suffered from other serious conditions.
More than 18,000 cases have been detected throughout the world outside of Africa since the beginning of May, the World Health Organization (WHO) says.
Spain is one of the world's worst-hit countries, with 4,298 people there infected with the virus, according to the Spanish health ministry.
"Among the 3,750 (monkeypox) patients... 120 have been hospitalised and two have died," it said in a report, without specifying the date of the second death.
It said the victims were "two young men", and that studies were under way to gather more "epidemiologic information" on both cases.
Brazil said a man with monkeypox died on Thursday in Belo Horizonte, the capital of the southeastern Minas Gerais state.
He "was receiving hospital treatment for other serious conditions", the state health ministry said in a statement.
"It is important to underline that he had serious co-morbidities, so as not to spread panic in the population. The death rate is very low" for monkeypox, said Minas Gerais health secretary Fabio Baccheretti, who added that the patient was undergoing cancer treatment.
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