First monkeypox death outside Africa recorded in Brazil

A 41-year-old man in Brazil has died of monkeypox, making him the first person outside of Africa to have been killed by the disease, local authorities said on Friday.

The man, who local media said had serious immune system problems, died in Belo Horizonte, the capital of the southeastern Minas Gerais state, on Thursday.

He "was receiving hospital treatment for other serious conditions," the state health ministry said in a statement.

Brazil's health ministry has recorded close to 1,000 monkeypox cases, mostly in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro states, which are also in the country's southeast.

It has been detected in 78 countries with 70 percent of cases found in Europe and 25 percent in the Americas, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Wednesday.