Los Angeles Reports First Death Related to Monkeypox, Victims Experience Severe Immune Disorders

Illustration of monkeypox. (Wikimedia Commons/CDC/Brian WJ Mahy)

JAKARTA - The Los Angeles Department of Public Health, United States announced on Monday it had confirmed the first death from monkeypox. It said the individual had been hospitalized with severe immune disorders.

The department said it had made a decision that the deaths in Los Angeles County were due to monkeypox in conjunction with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

"The resident is severely immunocompromised and has been hospitalized," the department said in a statement.

This is the second known death of a person diagnosed with the disease in the United States.

The first death related to monkeypox in Uncle Sam's country, was reported in Texas last month, also with severe immunodeficiency.

Although, the Texas case is still under investigation to see what role monkey smallpox played in the death.

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

It is known that anyone can be infected with monkeypox, which is spread through close contact with an infected person.

Nearly all of the more than 21.985 cases of monkeypox in the United States, occur among gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men, according to the CDC.