This is a first in Europe, Madrid announced on Friday the death of a person with the variolate of the monkey. In Brazil, a 41 -year -old man, carrying the disease, also died. It had other “serious clinical conditions”.
Le Monde with AFP
The Spanish Ministry of Health announced Friday, July 29, the death of a person with the variolate of the monkey, considered as the first death ever recorded in Europe of a patient contaminated by this disease.
In Spain, one of the countries with the most case in the world, 4,298 people have been infected and one of them is dead, said the Coordination Center for Alerts and Health Emergencies of the ministry in its Friday report, without specifying the cause or the date of this death.
A 41 -year -old man carrying the variole of the monkey died in Brazil, the first death linked to the disease outside of Africa and the sixth in total, local authorities announced on Friday. A man “suffering from a variety of the monkey who was followed in the hospital for other serious clinical conditions died on Thursday,” said the Brazilian state secretariat of Minas Gerais (south-east) in a press release .
The patient, who according to local media had serious immunity problems, died at the Eduardo hospital in Menezes in Belo Horizonte, the capital of Minas Gerais.
“Mortality (linked to this disease) remains very low “
“It is important to emphasize that it had serious comorbidities, so as not to arouse panic in the population. Mortality (linked to this disease) remains very low,” said Minas Gerais Health Secretary , Fábio Baccheretti, who explained that the patient was following cancer treatment.
According to the Ministry of Health, Brazil has identified nearly 1,000 cases of the variolate of the monkey, most of them in the states of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, also located in the south-east of the country. The first case was detected on June 10, from a man who traveled to Europe. The first symptoms of the disease include high fever, swollen lymph nodes and a rash similar to that of chickenpox.
Saturday, the World Health Organization (WHO) sparked the highest level of alert, the urgency of public health of international scope (USPPI), to strengthen the fight against the variole of the monkey. According to the WHO, more than 18,000 cases of variole of the monkey have been detected worldwide since the beginning of May outside the endemic areas in Africa.
The disease has been reported in 78 countries and 70 % of cases are concentrated in Europe and 25 % in the Americas, the organization director said on Wednesday, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. About 10 % of cases require admission to the hospital to try to alleviate the pain that patients know.