Italian tourist dies in Cuba’s first case of monkeypox

3D rendering illustration of the monkeypox virus. | STOCK IMAGE

HAVANA — An Italian tourist with monkeypox, the first reported case in Cuba, has died, the country’s health ministry announced on Monday.

“This patient rapidly deteriorated to critical condition, having been unstable since August 18, dying on the afternoon of the 21st,” the ministry said in a statement.

The 50-year-old arrived in Cuba on August 15 and was hospitalized three days later, the statement said.

“The autopsy carried out at the Institute of Forensic Medicine showed that the cause of death was sepsis due to bronchopneumonia caused by an unspecified germ and multiple organ damage,” it added.

The ministry ruled out the patient having other pathologies of infectious origin, after carrying out studies seeking explanations for the severity of his case.

The Italian had been staying in a rented house and visited several places in the western provinces of the country. On Wednesday he felt “general symptoms” of malaise and went to a doctor on Thursday because they persisted.

He was rushed to hospital after suffering a cardiac arrest from which he later recovered.

The man’s close contacts are so far asymptomatic and remain in isolation, the ministry said.

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