Aug 26 (Reuters) - Diagnostics firm Labcorp ( LH ) said

that it was working with U.S. health regulators to monitor the

mpox outbreak and has the capacity to significantly increase

testing in the country if needed.

The company is processing approximately 500 mpox tests a

month but can scale up to around 25,000 per month, Marcia

Eisenberg, Labcorp's ( LH ) chief scientific officer, told Reuters in

an emailed statement.

Labcorp's ( LH ) FDA-cleared, physician-ordered polymerase chain

reaction (PCR) test detects all non-smallpox related

orthopoxviruses, including mpox. The test also detects the new

strain of clade Ib mpox.

Earlier this month, the World Health Organization

declared mpox a global

public health emergency

, its highest form of alert, for the second time in two

years, because of an outbreak in the Democratic Republic of

Congo that had spread to other countries.

A

new form

of the virus has triggered global concern as it seems to

spread easily though routine close contact.