Los Angeles reports area's first death due to monkeypox
Test tubes labeled "Monkeypox virus positive and negative" are seen in this illustration taken on May 23, 2022. (File photo: Reuters/Dado Ruvic)
The Los Angeles Department of Public Health said on Monday (Sep 12) it had confirmed the area's first death due to monkeypox, saying the individual was severely immunocompromised and had been hospitalised.
The department said it had made the determination that the death in Los Angeles County was due to monkeypox together with the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
"The resident was severely immunocompromised and had been hospitalised," the department said in a statement.
It is the second known death of a person diagnosed with the disease in the US. 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 US have occurred among gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men, according to the CDC.
