Diagnostic testing lab HealthTrackRx has developed a new molecular test to detect the human monkeypox virus.
Developed by the company’s research and development team, the new HealthTrackRx assay is commercially available to customers across the US in response to the quickly growing public health emergency.
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Using Thermo Fisher Scientific’s TaqMan multiplex real-time PCR technology, the pan-monkeypox test can detect the West African and Congo basin virus strains.
The assay will provide results for physicians and patients within 24 hours of the test as part of HealthTrackRx’s commitment to expediting the diagnosis of infectious diseases.
HealthTrackRx CEO and chairman Martin Price said: “In light of The World Health Organization (WHO) declaring the monkeypox outbreak a global health emergency and the proliferation of cases in our communities, we’re pleased to deploy a means of rapidly detecting this virus.
“Applying molecular diagnostics to detect infectious diseases and getting those results in healthcare providers’ hands by the next day is our mission and is where we can make a difference in containing this crisis.”
The new pan-Monkeypox assay can be ordered by healthcare providers as a single test or combined with other lesion/ulcer causating pathogens, which may be confused with human monkeypox.
It has been developed for use on pathogens with clinical manifestations of lesions, ulcers or other skin abnormalities.
A positive test report for human monkeypox virus will be reported to the physicians who order the test.
Additionally, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and local health authorities will be notified of positive test reports for surveillance purposes.
