Spanish health ministry confirms second death from monkeypox virus

The Spanish Health Ministry has confirmed the country's second death from the Monkeypox virus.

The news comes less than 24 hours after the first death from the disease was reported by the Ministry on Friday evening, Xinhua news agency reported.

It's also the second death reported in Europe.

The identity of the victims has not been released. The first victim was a resident in the Comunidad Valenciana in eastern Spain and died as the result of encephalitis associated with the infection.

According to data collected by the National Network of Epidemiological Vigilance (RENAVE), 4,298 cases of the virus have been confirmed in Spain (with 64 of those in women), while 120 people have needed hospital treatment.

Data also shows that more than 80 per cent of infections came as the result of a sexual relationship, while infection in 10.5 per cent of cases came through close non-sexual contact.

The average age of a person infected with Monkeypox in Spain is 37-years-old, although cases have been registered in a 10-month-old baby and an 88-year-old.

Cases have been reported in all of Spain's 17 autonomous communities, but the majority are from the Comunidad de Madrid (1,656), with a further 1,406 from Catalonia and 498 in the southern region of Andalusia.

--IANS

int/khz/