CDC refuses to approve high-volume measles test, citing ‘other priorities’ | Trump administration

California and Washington in May asked the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to validate a new way to test for measles — but after waiting two months, the CDC rejected the request, citing “other competing priorities,” according to a letter from the West Coast Health Alliance to CDC Director Erica Schwartz.

The letter, signed by health officials in California, Hawaii, Oregon and Washington, asks Schwartz to reconsider and validate a rapid, high-volume measles test in anticipation of major outbreaks. The alliance also asked the CDC to create protocols for testing other high-priority pathogens to prepare for future outbreaks.

The CDC is “ensuring that state and local health departments have the support they need to strengthen measles detection and outbreak response,” said Emily Hilliard, a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The agency was “prioritizing emerging technologies” to respond to the measles outbreak, Hilliard said.

The spokesperson did not respond to questions about whether the CDC was considering validating a high-throughput measles test.

Such a test would “significantly enhance” labs’ ability to respond quickly to outbreaks, health officials said — helping prepare for known pathogens like Ebola or hantavirus as well as emerging threats.

Currently, laboratories must rely on lower-volume measles tests, such as individual polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests.

During the Covid pandemic, most public health laboratories purchased equipment in large quantities, such as the Hologic Panther Fusion, a disease diagnostic PCR platform capable of processing up to 500 tests in eight hours. This way, laboratories could process large batches of Covid tests very quickly.

But there is no high-throughput test to diagnose measles — at least, no test published or validated by the CDC.

Texas state labs developed such a test during the measles outbreak in West Texas last year, but they have neither distributed nor published the protocol. The CDC could implement and publish this or that protocol so that other public health laboratories can perform laboratory diagnostic tests.

The CDC reportedly completed studies on the Texas test and another from ARUP Laboratories, “but these were not complete validations or a complete comparison,” officials said in the letter.

The alliance asked Schwartz to develop a test, or test, for measles diagnostic testing on the Panther Fusion and to publish that protocol so that any laboratory could perform the tests. Having tests ready to go is a critical part of preparedness, the letter states: “If a significant outbreak were to occur in our region, without broadband capacity it would be more difficult to scale up diagnostic testing appropriately, harming patient care and public health investigations. »