NewsDesk @bactiman63

To quickly increase monkeypox testing capacity and access in every community during the ongoing monkeypox outbreak, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), began shipping orthopoxvirus tests to five commercial laboratory companies, including the nation’s largest reference laboratories–Aegis Science, Labcorp, Mayo Clinic Laboratories, Quest Diagnostics and Sonic Healthcare.

Image by Arek Socha from Pixabay

These commercial laboratories will dramatically expand testing capacity nationwide and make testing more convenient and accessible for patients and health care providers. Health care providers will be able to use these laboratories by early July and testing capacity through these companies will be ramped up throughout the month. This development will facilitate increased testing, leverage established relationships between clinics, hospitals and commercial laboratories, and support our ability to better understand the scope of the current monkeypox outbreak.

“All Americans should be concerned about monkeypox cases. Thankfully we have right now the tools to fight and treat cases in America,” said Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra. “By dramatically expanding the number of testing locations throughout the country, we are making it possible for anyone who needs to be tested to do so.”

As of today, the CDC has reported 201 confirmed monkeypox/orthopoxvirus cases in 25 states and the District of Columbia.