Swiss pharmaceutical behemoth Roche announced on Wednesday that the US Drug Enforcement Administration had authorized a test for monkeypox.
According to Roche, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the emergency use authorization, allowing for a quicker ramp-up in the sale of medications or diagnostic tests. One of the first companies to create tests to identify monkeypox was Roche, which was also the first to develop PCR testing for coronavirus.
According to Roche, the test can still detect the monkeypox virus even if it mutates because it targets two distinct areas of the virus’ genome that are least likely to change.
The test will make sure patients have “access to appropriate treatment as soon as feasible” and will assist people to avoid “unnecessary extra testing or seclusion,” it was stated.
The business emphasized that symptoms alone cannot provide a “conclusive diagnosis” of the infection. Fever aches in the muscles and huge, boil-like skin lesions are some of the signs of monkeypox.
According to a WHO report, since monkeypox unexpectedly started spreading outside of the West African nations where it has long been prevalent, six months ago, it killed 36 individuals out of more than 77,000 cases scattered over 109 countries.
The majority of young guys who have sex with men have been impacted by the outbreak outside of West Africa. However, the number of infected people has steadily decreased since July, especially in Europe and North America, which were the regions most severely affected in the early phases of the global pandemic.
