The US Food & Drug Administration (FDA) has given the go-ahead to a test by Swiss company Roche to detect monkeypox, approving it for emergency use authorisation.
Roche, which was also fast in producing PCR tests for coronavirus, was among the first to develop tests to detect monkeypox, reports News24.
The company's test targets two different regions of the virus’ genome that are least likely to mutate, so it can still detect the monkeypox virus if it mutates, Roche said.
The company said the test will eliminate “unnecessary additional testing or isolation” and ensure people have “access to appropriate treatment as soon as possible”.
It added, however, that the virus cannot be “conclusively diagnosed” by symptoms alone.
Since monkeypox suddenly began spreading – beyond the West African countries where it has long been endemic – six months ago, it has killed 36 people out of more than 77 000 cases across 109 countries.
The outbreak outside West Africa has primarily affected young men who have sex with men, but since peaking in July, numbers have consistently fallen, particularly in Europe and North America, the hardest hit areas in the early stages of the global outbreak.
News24 article – US approves monkeypox detection test, Swiss giant Roche says (Restricted access)
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