Spain confirms first monkeypox death

MADRID: The Spanish Health Ministry has confirmed the first death from monkeypox in the country.

The news came less than a week after the World Health Organization declared monkeypox a global health emergency, reporters Xinhua news agency.

Until now, 4,298 cases of the virus have been confirmed in Spain, and 120 people were admitted to hospital for treatment, according to data collected by the National Epidemiological Surveillance Network (RENAVE).

Of the total, only 64 were women.

RENAVE also said that 2,253 cases, or 82.1 per cent of the infections, were the result of a sexual relationship, while 10.5 per cent of infections came through close non-sexual contact.

The age of a person infected with the virus in Spain ranges from 10-month-old baby to 88-year-old.

Monkeypox cases have been reported in all of Spain's 17 Autonomous Communities, but the majority are from the Community of Madrid (1,656), with a further 1,406 from Catalonia and 498 in the southern region of Andalusia.