On Jul. 6, 2022, LabCorp announced that it had begun testing for mpox using the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) orthopoxvirus test, which detects all non-smallpox related orthopoxviruses, including mpox. This effort was part of the U.S. Administration’s commitment to quickly increase mpox testing access and capacity in every community during the ongoing outbreak.

Labcorp was the first national laboratory to offer this polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test, which it verified for the CDC, and the first to launch a more automated assay option.

Labcorp offered the testing at its largest laboratory in the United States and has the ability to accept specimens from its customers, as well as overflow from public laboratories, from across the U.S. using its significant transportation and logistics capabilities. Eventually, Labcorp have the ability to increase capacity up to 10,000 tests per week, which will double the current capacity provided through CDC’s Laboratory Response Network (LRN). This development facilitated increased testing by leveraging established relationships between Labcorp and the clinics, hospitals, and health care providers it serves. Labcorp will use electronic laboratory reporting (ELR) to report results to jurisdictions as outlined in the CDC reporting guidance.

The public will go to their health care provider for sample collection and to initiate the testing process; however, health care providers can order the orthopoxvirus test from Labcorp just as they normally would order other tests. This test was available on the Labcorp test menu.

CDC guidance is that anyone with a rash that looks like mpox should talk to their health care provider, even if they don’t think they had contact with someone who has mpox.