CDC Develops Faster Test for Enterovirus D68
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iStock/Thinkstock(ATLANTA) — The Centers for Disease Control has developed a faster test for enterovirus D68 that will reduce the time to confirm a diagnosis from weeks to days.
The CDC has a backlog of about a thousand specimens awaiting a lab test. Since the results will now come quicker than before, public health officials expect the number of confirmed cases to skyrocket.
But that doesn’t mean the respiratory illness is getting worse. Rather, it means the CDC will have better data to track the outbreak, which is expected to decline by late fall.
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