November 10, 2020 – Covid-19 tests have siphoned supplies crucial for other kinds of medical exams, including strep throat, fungal infections and sexually transmitted diseases, forcing some labs to ration testing for certain conditions, The Wall Street Journal reports.
Labs are facing shortfalls of the swabs, chemicals and other equipment needed to test patients and process tests, partly because supply chains were altered earlier in the year in order to ramp up production of COVID-19 tests.
Laboratory directors say they expect the shortages to worsen in coming months, as flu testing gets under way and Covid-19 cases continue to increase sharply, requiring more of the materials and equipment.
Due to the shortages, some medical-testing labs have had to limit how many samples they can process and what conditions they can test for.
Roughly 30% of labs surveyed the week of Oct. 26 by the American Society for Microbiology and the Association of Supply Chain Management said they were experiencing shortages of supplies to detect bacteria that cause infections such as strep throat, bronchitis and urinary-tract infections.
Half of the 127 labs surveyed said they were short on supplies for routine fungal infections ranging from superficial skin conditions to serious lung and blood diseases, the society said.
Demand for the other tests fell during shutdowns. In the past six months, Hologic roughly doubled its overall test-production capacity and supply of collection kit components, the spokeswoman said. The company is now increasing production for all of its molecular tests…