Monkeypox Outbreak Subsides in US, Europe, But Public Health Concerns Remain

Experts cite high vaccination rates and behavioral changes among at-risk groups, but warn about complacency; clinical laboratories should remain vigilant In July, Scott Gottlieb, MD, Commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) from May 2017 to April 2019, wrote an op-ed in The New York Times titled, “Monkeypox Is About to Become the Next Public Health Failure.” In it, he wrote, “Our country’s response to monkeypox has been plagued by the same shortcomings we had with COVID-19.”...

Researchers Use Genetic Sequencing and Wastewater Analysis to Detect SARS-CoV-2 Variants and Monkeypox within Communities

Researchers surprised that process designed to detect SARS-CoV-2 also identifies monkeypox in wastewater Early information about an outbreak in a geographical region can inform local clinical laboratories as to which infectious agents and variants they are likely to see when testing patients who have symptoms. To that end, wastewater testing has become a rich source of early clues as to where COVID-19 outbreaks are spreading and how new variants of the coronavirus are emerging. Now, scientists...

New Monkeypox Challenges Abound for Public Health Agencies as Virus Travels Beyond Traditional Hotspots

Officials also worry about diminishing smallpox vaccinations, which offered people protection against the infectious disease Monkeypox challenges from the current outbreak have dogged public health agencies even though the disease was first identified more than 50 years ago. That is because the virus has found new avenues of infection. These developments will be relevant for the nation’s clinical laboratories, which are often the first healthcare providers to confirm a suspected case is...

UK Researchers Believe Somatic Mutations Play Vital Role in Aging, Longevity, and Death

Understanding why some mutations impair normal bodily functions and contribute to cancer may lead to new clinical laboratory diagnostics New insight into the human genome may help explain the ageing process and provide clues to improving human longevity that can be useful to clinical laboratories and researchers developing cancer diagnostics. A recent study conducted at the Wellcome Sanger Institute in Cambridge, United Kingdom, suggests that the speed of DNA errors in genetic mutations may...

International Team of Scientists Use Genetic Testing to Solve Centuries-Old Mystery of Black Death’s Origin

DNA analysis of early plague victims pinpoints Black Death’s start on Silk Road trading communities in mountain region of what is now modern-day Kyrgyzstan in Central Asia Microbiologists and clinical laboratory scientists will likely find it fascinating that an international team of scientists may have solved one of history’s greatest mysteries—the origin of the bubonic plague that ravaged Afro-Eurasia in the mid fourteenth century. Also known as the Black Death, the plague killed 60% of the...
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