Los Angeles County confirms 1st death from monkeypox virus
A Los Angeles County resident has died of monkeypox, health officials announced Monday, marking not only the region’s first confirmed death because of the virus but also what appears to be the first confirmed death in the nation.
The resident was severely immunocompromised and had been hospitalized, the L.A. County Department of Public Health said in a news release. Citing confidentiality concerns, the health department said other information about the resident and the case would be kept private.
Monday’s announcement comes after the health department said last week that a county resident with monkeypox had died. Health officials said at the time that the case was under investigation to determine whether the virus was a contributing factor.
Health department officials said Monday that the department and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had confirmed the county’s first death because of monkeypox.
“Public Health sends heartfelt condolences and wishes of healing to the family and friends mourning the loss of their loved one,” the county health department said in its news release.
Texas health officials announced a suspected monkeypox-related death late last month. That person was also immunocompromised, Texas Department of State Health Services officials said.
But the CDC has not yet confirmed that the Texas death was caused by monkeypox.
Monkeypox, according to health officials, causes milder illness than its smallpox relative and is rarely fatal. It spreads through prolonged skin-to-skin or face-to-face contact. That includes kissing, hugging, cuddling and other forms of intimate contact. The virus can also spread via infected materials, including cups, bedding, clothing, towels and utensils.
Symptoms can include fever, headache, muscle aches, swollen lymph nodes, chills and exhaustion. A rash that can look like pimples or blisters sometimes appears on the face, inside the mouth and on other parts of the body.
Symptoms vary from case to case and health officials urge any residents experiencing symptoms — especially those
who are immunocompromised — to seek out medical care.
There had been 21,985 confirmed monkeypox cases nationwide as of Monday, according to the CDC’s dashboard. Globally, the CDC has confirmed 57,995 cases and 18 deaths.
L.A. County had 1,722 confirmed and suspected monkeypox cases as of Friday, according to health department data.
In Long Beach and Pasadena, both of which have independent health departments, there were 95 and 22 confirmed and suspected cases of the virus, respectively.
Officials across the region have bolstered their efforts to make the monkeypox vaccine widely available, with the L.A. County, Long Beach and Pasadena public health agencies recently announcing expansions to vaccine eligibility.
Now people living with HIV, especially those with advanced or uncontrolled disease, and gay and bisexual men and transgender people who have sex with men or transgender people are also eligible for the monkeypox shot. And those who have had close contact with someone suspected to be infected with the virus, even if the health department hasn’t confirmed the infection, are also now eligible for the vaccine.
Those new criteria apply to residents in both L.A. County and Long Beach.
More than 52,000 doses of the monkeypox vaccine had been administered countywide as of Friday, including in Long Beach and Pasadena, according to the county dashboard.
More information about monkeypox is available on the county health department’s website.