(REUTERS)

Brazil on Friday (July 29) reported the first monkeypox-related death outside the African continent in the current outbreak, a 41-year-old man who, according to the health ministry, also suffered from lymphoma and a weakened immune system.

“The comorbidities aggravated his condition,” the ministry said, adding the patient was hospitalised in the southeastern city of Belo Horizonte and died from septic shock after being taken to the intensive care unit.

The first monkeypox death in the Americas came less than a week after the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the rapidly spreading outbreak a global health emergency, its highest level of alert.

Across the Atlantic Ocean, Spain also confirmed its first monkeypox-related death, El Mundo and ABC newspapers reported, quoting the Spanish Health Ministry.

The WHO had so far reported five confirmed monkeypox deaths, all in Africa.

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).