Japan Confirms First Death Due To Mpox Infection In September

Illustration of mpox. (Pixabay/geralt)

JAKARTA - Japan's Ministry of Health on Wednesday announced that a man in his 30s living in Saitama Prefecture near Tokyo, died of mpox, the country's first death from the disease.

The man had an immune disorder due to being infected with the viral human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV, the ministry said, according to Kyodo News December 13.

His death comes months after the World Health Organization (WHO) said in May, "mux" was no longer a public health emergency of international concern, along with a decline in new infection cases.

He explained that the man was diagnosed with mpox at a local hospital in September and died two months later, according to the ministry and government of Saitama Prefecture. He has no history of traveling abroad.

It is known that the first MPX case in Japan, previously known as monkeypox, was confirmed in July last year. The ministry said the Land of the Rising Sun had 227 confirmed cases of MPX as of December 3.

This disease causes high fever, headache and swelling of lymph nodes, followed by rashes that look like abrasions on the face and other body parts.

Although most people can recover on their own within two to four weeks, children, pregnant women and people with immune system disorders are at risk of severe symptoms.

According to the National Institute of Infectious Diseases, more than 90,000 cases and 157 deaths from Mpox were reported worldwide from January 2022 to September this year, with Asia experiencing an increase in the number of infections since last March.