A 41-year-old man in Brazil has died of monkeypox, making him the first person outside of Africa to have been killed by the disease, local authorities have said.
The man, who local media said had serious immune system problems, died in Belo Horizonte, the capital of the southeastern Minas Gerais state, yesterday.
He "was receiving hospital treatment for other serious conditions," the state health ministry said in a statement.
The news of the death in Brazil came shortly before Spain confirmed Europe's first known death in the outbreak.
Spanish authorities did not immediately release details of the person who died.
Almost 1,000 cases identified
Brazil's health ministry has recorded close to 1,000 monkeypox cases, mostly in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro states, which are also in the country's southeast.
The first case was detected on 10 June in a man who had traveled to Europe.
Early signs of the disease include a high fever, swollen lymph glands and a chickenpox-like rash.
Brazil, along with the United States and Canada, is among the countries most affected by monkeypox in the Americas, where more than 5,000 cases have been reported to date, according to the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO).
PAHO said in a press briefing this week that almost all cases had been reported among men who have sex with men between the ages of 25 and 45, but warned that anyone can get the disease regardless of their gender or sexual orientation.
The World Health Organization (WHO) last Saturday declared the monkeypox outbreak a global health emergency.
According to the WHO, more than 18,000 cases have been detected throughout the world outside of Africa since the beginning of May.
It has been detected in 78 countries with 70% of cases found in Europe and 25% in the Americas, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Wednesday.
The WHO had so far reported only five confirmed monkeypox deaths, all in Africa.
