US CDC halts testing for several infectious diseases
Change
US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) suspended more than two dozen diagnostic testing services that support state and local public health laboratories, affecting assays for rabies, poxviruses and several common viral and parasitic infections.
Why it matters
State and local laboratories will lose federal backup for confirmation of pathogens they cannot test for locally, making timely case confirmation and outbreak detection harder. The agency's reduced pool of experienced scientists will also limit specialist clinical guidance for rare but high-concern infections such as rabies and poxviruses.
Implications
- • State and local public health laboratories' diagnostic teams must immediately shift specimens to commercial laboratories or validate in-house assays for pathogens no longer covered by CDC testing.
- • State and local public health laboratory procurement teams must negotiate and secure contracts with commercial testing providers for assays like Epstein-Barr virus and varicella zoster virus where those services exist.
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