MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Bolivia reports first death of monkeypox patient

The patient was 28 years old and had a weak immunological condition

A patient at Santa Cruz de la Sierra's San Juan de Dios Hospital who was infected with monkeypox has died, thus becoming the first casualty with the malady in the country, it was announced Friday.

Departmental Health Service (Sedes) Urban Networks Coordinator Jorge Quiroz also explained that the patient, aged 28, had a weak immunological condition.

The patient had been admitted on Sept. 17 at the facility's monkeypox ward. “In his first week, he had a favorable evolution, even though he has an immunological disease, an important base disease, pulmonary, which generated a complex picture and general failure and that yesterday afternoon he died,” San Juan de Dios' Medical Director Marcelo Cuellar told reporters.

According to the Health Ministry of Health, the number of patients who have recovered is now 108, bringing the accumulated total to 215 people who tested positive for the virus, with 195 of them in Santa Cruz, 11 in Cochabamba, 7 in La Paz, 1 in Potosi and 1 in Chuquisaca.