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Today, 12:57 PM
News Wire
3h ago
Monkeypox Testing Shows the US Learned Little From the Covid-19 Pandemic
Madison Muller, Bloomberg News
(Bloomberg) -- US testing for monkeypox is insufficient to determine how widespread the virus is and where new cases are cropping up, according to infectious disease experts and advocates concerned about a sluggish response to the outbreak that’s already hit 32 countries.
While government labs have the capacity to test as many as 8,000 samples a week, they’re only using 2% of that capability, suggesting that about 23 monkeypox tests are being performed a day, said James Krellenstein, the cofounder of PrEP4All, an HIV advocacy group that widened its focus during the pandemic. Much more testing is needed to find out where the pathogen is and how fast it’s moving, he said.
...
The situation echoes the early days of Covid-19, when flawed tests from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention allowed the pandemic to spread undetected in the US, Krellenstein said.
“It’s concerning that the CDC isn’t pushing for this themselves, especially after Covid,” he said in an interview. “This is a critical period: Outbreaks become harder to control as time goes on.”
...
Testing is so limited that it’s impossible to tell how much of the virus circulating in the US is being picked up, said Ranu Dhillon, an infectious disease doctor at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. It could be 90% or just 10%, he said.
...
Other practices may limit the recognition of monkeypox’s spread. Most testing is currently reserved for people with a characteristic rash and who either are men who have sex with men or have recently traveled abroad, according to Paul Sax, an infectious diseases doctor at Harvard and Brigham and Women’s Hospital...
Monkeypox may also be confused with some sexually transmitted infections, such as herpes or syphilis, health officials said.
...
Restrictive testing could create blind spots as the virus spreads to other populations. The focus on men could lead to missed infections in women or children, Harvard’s Dhillon said. The US should be over-testing for monkeypox in order to ensure the full scope of the outbreak is known, he said.
©2022 Bloomberg L.P.
https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/monkeypo...emic-1.1779796[/B][/B]
News Wire
3h ago
Monkeypox Testing Shows the US Learned Little From the Covid-19 Pandemic
Madison Muller, Bloomberg News
(Bloomberg) -- US testing for monkeypox is insufficient to determine how widespread the virus is and where new cases are cropping up, according to infectious disease experts and advocates concerned about a sluggish response to the outbreak that’s already hit 32 countries.
While government labs have the capacity to test as many as 8,000 samples a week, they’re only using 2% of that capability, suggesting that about 23 monkeypox tests are being performed a day, said James Krellenstein, the cofounder of PrEP4All, an HIV advocacy group that widened its focus during the pandemic. Much more testing is needed to find out where the pathogen is and how fast it’s moving, he said.
...
The situation echoes the early days of Covid-19, when flawed tests from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention allowed the pandemic to spread undetected in the US, Krellenstein said.
“It’s concerning that the CDC isn’t pushing for this themselves, especially after Covid,” he said in an interview. “This is a critical period: Outbreaks become harder to control as time goes on.”
...
Testing is so limited that it’s impossible to tell how much of the virus circulating in the US is being picked up, said Ranu Dhillon, an infectious disease doctor at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. It could be 90% or just 10%, he said.
...
Other practices may limit the recognition of monkeypox’s spread. Most testing is currently reserved for people with a characteristic rash and who either are men who have sex with men or have recently traveled abroad, according to Paul Sax, an infectious diseases doctor at Harvard and Brigham and Women’s Hospital...
Monkeypox may also be confused with some sexually transmitted infections, such as herpes or syphilis, health officials said.
...
Restrictive testing could create blind spots as the virus spreads to other populations. The focus on men could lead to missed infections in women or children, Harvard’s Dhillon said. The US should be over-testing for monkeypox in order to ensure the full scope of the outbreak is known, he said.
©2022 Bloomberg L.P.
https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/monkeypo...emic-1.1779796[/B][/B]