Labs stepping up testing for monkeypox

Labs nationally are stepping up the fight against monkeypox.

Late last month, 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, to quickly increase monkeypox testing capacity and access in every community during the ongoing monkeypox outbreak.

The companies include Aegis Science, Labcorp, Mayo Clinic Laboratories, Quest Diagnostics and Sonic Healthcare.

“The ability of commercial laboratories to test for monkeypox is an important pillar in our comprehensive strategy to combat this disease,” said CDC Director Rochelle Walensky, M.D., M.P.H.

“This will not only increase testing capacity but also make it more convenient for providers and patients to access tests by using existing provider-to-laboratory networks,” Dr. Walkensky added.

Since the start of the outbreak, CDC has worked closely with clinicians to ensure that they are expanding the use of testing and ordering tests for their patients accordingly. That outreach included:

• Publishing a Health Alert Notice that reached thousands of clinicians and updated and expanded the case definition to encourage testing for monkeypox in people with a rash and who may be at risk for developing monkeypox.
• Hosting two COCA calls with clinicians with more than 17,000 participants.
• Conducting ongoing consultations through a Clinician Call Center that was quickly set up to respond to individual providers and state and local health officials.
• Participating in an American Medical Association webinar last week.

Anyone with a rash that looks like monkeypox should talk to their healthcare provider about whether they need to get tested, even if they don’t think they had contact with someone who has monkeypox.

Healthcare providers, nationwide, can order the orthopoxvirus test just as they normally would order other tests.

The latest CDC information on monkeypox is available at www.cdc.gov/monkeypox.