Swiss Company Roche Develops A Monkeypox Virus Detection Tool

JAKARTA - Swiss company Roche claims to have developed three test kits to detect the monkeypox virus as the disease spreads outside Africa, where the virus usually goes undetected.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there are more than 200 suspected or confirmed cases of monkeypox in Europe and North America.

The company -- reported by Reuters via Antara -- said that one of its LightMix Modular Virus tools detected orthopoxviruses, a biological group that includes viruses related to monkeypox, human smallpox and cowpox.

The second test kit only detected the monkeypox virus, specifically the West African and Central African variants.

Meanwhile, a third test kit is for researchers and is capable of detecting both the orthopoxvirus and the monkeypox virus.