US seeks to expand monkeypox testing as cases spread to 16 states

CHICAGO • US health officials are working to expand capabilities to test for monkeypox beyond a narrow group of public health labs, heeding calls from infectious disease experts who say testing for the virus needs to become part of routine care.

US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) director Rochelle Walensky said during a conference call on Friday that her agency was working with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Centres for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to expand testing capacity to include commercial laboratories.

Currently, preliminary monkeypox testing in the United States is done through a network of 69 public health laboratories, which send results to the CDC for confirmation. There have been 45 confirmed monkeypox cases in 16 US states so far, with the bulk of the current outbreak outside of Africa, where the virus is endemic, occurring in Europe.

The US has conducted roughly 300 monkeypox tests.

While testing for the virus rose by 45 per cent last week, that needs to increase dramatically if the outbreak is to be contained, infectious disease experts said.

"There is not enough testing going on now for monkeypox in the United States," said Dr Tom Inglesby, director of the Johns Hopkins Centre for Health Security.

"The commercial labs are used to working with healthcare providers from across the country, moving samples around quickly, reporting results quickly in a way that providers understand and expect."

Large commercial US testing companies include Quest Diagnostics and Labcorp.

For commercial labs to do this testing, they need access to monkeypox samples to validate their tests, regulatory guidance from the FDA and commercial billing codes set by CMS, said Dr Inglesby, a former senior White House adviser for the Covid-19 response.

"My sense is all of that is moving forward," he said.

REUTERS