U.S. laboratory Quest Diagnostics starts monkeypox testing

U.S. clinical laboratory Quest Diagnostics started testing for monkeypox on Wednesday, part of the U.S. efforts to expand testing capacity to address increase of monkeypox cases.

The company has developed a real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test that uses patient swab specimens to qualitatively detect non-variola orthpoxviruses and monkeypox virus DNA, said the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Quest is also verifying the CDC's orthopoxvirus test and plans to make it available to healthcare providers in the first half of August.

Quest's testing will continue to increase the country's current capacity, providing testing capacity of up to 60,000 specimens per week by the end of July, according to the CDC.

A total of 929 monkeypox cases had been reported in the United States as of Tuesday, according to CDC data.