Beginning on Monday, July 18, 2022, Sonic Healthcare USA (Sonic) will start testing for monkeypox using CDC’s orthopoxvirus test, which detects most non-smallpox related orthopoxviruses, including monkeypox virus.
Sonic will offer the orthopoxvirus test at Sonic Reference Laboratory in Austin, Texas, and can accept specimens through its network of clinical laboratories located across the United States. Sonic will continue to expand testing capacity as needed while collaborating with CDC’s Laboratory Response Network (LRN).
On June 22, 2022, HHS announced that five commercial laboratory companies would soon begin offering monkeypox testing. Since then, CDC has shipped the tests to the laboratories and their employees have been trained on their administration, among other steps. All commercial labs are now online, and combined with CDC’s Laboratory Response Network, have increased testing capacity from 6,000 initially to up to 80,000 specimens per week.
Since the start of the outbreak, CDC has worked closely with clinicians to ensure that they are expanding the use of testing and ordering tests for their patients accordingly.
That outreach included:
- Publishing a Health Alert Network (HAN) Health Update that reached thousands of clinicians and updated and expanded the case definition to encourage testing for monkeypox in people with a rash and who may be at risk for developing monkeypox.
- Hosting two COCA Calls with clinicians with more than 17,000 participants.
- Conducting ongoing consultations through a Clinician Call Center that was quickly set up to respond to individual providers and state and local health officials. Healthcare professionals who suspect monkeypox should contact the CDC Emergency Operations Center at 770-488-7100 or at poxvirus@cdc.gov.
- Participating in an American Medical Association webinar held on July 14, 2022.
Anyone with a rash that looks like monkeypox should talk to their healthcare provider about whether they need to get tested, even if they don’t think they had contact with someone who has monkeypox. Healthcare providers, nationwide, can order the orthopoxvirus test from Sonic just as they normally would order other tests. People seeking testing for monkeypox must consult with their healthcare provider first; they cannot separately go to a Sonic lab, submit a specimen, and request testing. Sonic will use electronic laboratory reporting to report results to jurisdictions as outlined in the CDC reporting guidance.
Healthcare providers can access information on Sonic’s test at www.sonichealthcareusa.com*. For more information about the latest CDC guidance, visit Recommendations for Healthcare Professionals.
*Linking to a non-federal site does not constitute an endorsement by HHS or any of its employees of the sponsors or the information and products presented on the site. |
