NC company will offer monkeypox test, doubling U.S. testing capacity

BURLINGTON, N.C. (WTVD) — North Carolina-based Labcorp is the first company in the United States to offer a test for monkeypox.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is working to expand monkeypox testing across the country.

Monkeypox is a rare virus that involves flu-like symptoms, swelling of the lymph nodes and a rash that includes bumps filled with fluid. Unlike COVID-19, monkeypox is not new; it was first discovered in 1958.

A vaccine for the virus already exists. In addition, the virus is not as easily transmitted as COVID-19.

Those reasons are just a few of why health experts are not as concerned about monkeypox becoming a global problem in the same way COVID-19 did for the past couple years.

Still, the U.S. government is working to expand testing capabilities as well as vaccine and treatment access.