Spain reports first death from MPOX, or monkeypox, since 2022.

Spain has reported its first death from monkeypox since 2022, in this case a man with AIDS who had not been vaccinated. This brings the number of deaths from monkeypox in our country to three since the global outbreak began three years ago.

This is stated in the latest epidemiological bulletin from the Carlos III Health Institute, which explains that this man, who died in the second quarter of this year, was between 30 and 40 years old and had HIV infection in an advanced stage of immunosuppression (AIDS stage).

This is the third death recorded in our country from mpox (formerly known as monkeypox) since 2022, when two other people died.

To date, our country has confirmed a total of 8,811 cases, 7,521 of them in the year the outbreak began. So far in 2025, 273 have been recorded.

Spain, the European country with the most positive cases

Spain thus remains the European country with the most reported positive cases, ahead of France (4,487), Germany (4,358) and the Netherlands (1,504), according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC).

Since January 1, 2024, the number of positive cases has risen to 965, of which the vast majority (96.1%) were unvaccinated or their vaccination status was unknown; 3.6% were vaccinated in the context of the current outbreak, but 26.5% had only received one dose, while 67.7% had received both. Of the remaining 5.9%, the number of jabs is unknown.

The most widespread transmission mechanism was sexual intercourse, present in 779 cases (83.1%), while in 30 cases it was due to close non-sexual contact (3.2%).

The majority (72.8%) were men who had had sex with other men (MSM); 3.3% were heterosexual men, 1.6% were heterosexual women, and 22.3% had no information.

However, the ISCIII emphasizes that epidemiological surveillance has been strengthened because cases of MPOX continue to be reported in Spain, although for the time being, there have been no "significant changes in the clinical and epidemiological characteristics" of those detected before 2024.

MPOX was declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern by the World Health Organization on August 14, 2024. On June 9, it decided to maintain it due to the increase in cases in areas such as West Africa and the likelihood of undetected infections even in areas beyond the African continent.