This 2003 electron microscope image made available by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows mature, oval-shaped monkeypox virions, left, and spherical immature virions, right, obtained from a sample of human skin associated with the 2003 prairie dog outbreak. The spread of monkeypox in the U.S. in 2022 could represent the dawn of a new sexually transmitted disease, or it could yet be contained. Or it might be too early to tell. (Cynthia S. Goldsmith, Russell R…
July 22, 2022
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Idaho’s state lab mixed up monkeypox tests; here’s how it happened
Two samples arrived last Thursday at the Idaho Bureau of Laboratories. Health care providers in two different parts of the state had swabbed their patients to test for suspected monkeypox infections. The lab processed the monkeypox tests and sent out results. Four days later, the state lab got a query from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC had received samples from the same patients, to confirm the state lab’s results — but those samples and test results didn’t match. It turned out that Idaho’s state lab had inadvertently swapped the two patients’ samples. It wasn’t just a paperwork error, though. It caused one person who didn’t have monkeypox to get a positive result and — more concerning for public health — one person who did have monkeypox to get a negative result.
Monkeypox virus could become entrenched as new STD in the US
99% of U.S. cases have been men who reported having sex with other men