Los Angeles reports area’s first death due to monkeypox

Test tubes labeled “Monkeypox virus positive” are seen in this illustration taken May 23, 2022. REUTERS FILE PHOTO

The Los Angeles Department of Public Health said on Monday it had confirmed the area’s first death due to monkeypox, saying the individual was severely immunocompromised and had been hospitalized.

The department said it had made the determination that the death in Los Angeles County was due to monkeypox together with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

“The resident was severely immunocompromised and had been hospitalized,” the department said in a statement.

It is the second known death of a person diagnosed with the disease in the United States. Texas last month reported the first death in a severely immunocompromised person who was diagnosed with monkeypox.

The Texas case is still under investigation to see what role monkeypox played in the death.

Monkeypox is rarely fatal, but people with weakened immune systems may be more likely to get seriously ill or die, health officials say.

Anyone can become infected with monkeypox, which spreads through close contact with an infected person. Nearly all of the more than 21,985 monkeypox cases in the United States have occurred among gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men, according to the CDC.

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