MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Peru reports first death of patient with monkeypox

“Apparently it would be an imported case, but studies have to be carried out to the utmost,” Auza said about the first infection confirmed in Bolivia

Peruvian health authorities Monday confirmed the first death of a patient with monkeypox in the continent's country second worst hit by the outbreak, while neighboring Bolivia confirmed the first infection.

With over 300 cases nationwide, Peru reported Monday the death of “a patient who arrived at the hospital in extremely serious condition with monkeypox and whose health had weakened after abandoning his HIV/AIDS treatment,” Dos de Mayo National Hospital Director Eduardo Farfán told reporters.

It was the fifth fatal case involving the virus outside Africa, after two deaths in Spain, one in Brazil, and one in India.

“He did not die of monkeypox but of septicemia” caused by a weakened immune system, the Lima-based physician added.

The patient, a 45-year-old man, had been hospitalized on Wednesday “highly infected” with monkeypox and “the germs that swarmed his skin compressed his lungs.”

“The problem is that he was a patient with other morbidities,” which made him more vulnerable and decompensated him,” Farfán said as health authorities reported Sunday that the number of infections had reached 305. (Read also: https://en.mercopress.com/2022/08/01/peru-totals-282-cases-of-monkeypox )

The Dos de Mayo hospital receives between eight and nine cases per day of people with monkeypox, and treatment is generally on an outpatient basis, Farfán also explained.

Meanwhile, Bolivia's Health Minister Jeyson Auza confirmed the first case of monkeypox in the country was a patient in the department of Santa Cruz. Auza also admitted there were other four suspected cases with their laboratory results yet to be returned.

“We have received last-minute information from the department of Santa Cruz where we report the confirmation of the first case of monkeypox in the Plurinational State of Bolivia,” Auza said during a press conference from Sucre, during which he announced a ministry team would travel to Santa Cruz to follow up the case.

The minister also pointed out that the necessary supplies to detect monkeypox were available in the country. “Apparently it would be an imported case, but studies have to be carried out to the utmost,” Auza went on.

“It is not superfluous to recommend the population to update their vaccination doses, in addition to maintaining a process of epidemiological surveillance, especially in Santa Cruz where we will ensure the epidemiological blockade and study how the case originated,” he added.

Monkeypox began to raise alerts in May due to the unusual increase of cases outside Africa continent, where the virus is endemic. It is a rare viral disease transmitted by close contact with an infected person with skin lesions.