Pharma Firm Develops Test Kits Amid Monkeypox Concerns

Monkey Business

Pharma Firm Develops Test Kits Amid Monkeypox Concerns Swiss pharmaceutical giant Roche says its new kits can detect associated viruses, like cowpox or smallpox, as well as specific strains of monkeypox. That’s good news for Europe, where the numbers of infections continue to climb daily. The U.K. tallies the highest case count of the virus — typically found only in West and Central Africa — and is struggling to determine how it arrived in the country. One theory, offered by David Heymann, an expert at the World Health Organization, suggests cases identified in 2018 and 2019 could be linked to the current outbreak, after low-scale transmission over the years. (Sources: Reuters, The Guardian)