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More than 860 North Carolinians have tested positive for Cyclospora this summer. They join thousands of Americans nationwide testing positive for the parasite at levels the country has never seen before. Two North Carolina cases have now been tied to a multistate outbreak involving shredded lettuce. A Cyclospora diagnosis requires a stool sample. In North Carolina, many of those samples during this summer’s historic rise in cases have been sent to Quest Diagnostics. “It’s been a busy summer, to say the least,” said Dr. Ann MacIntyre, senior medical director for infectious diseases at Quest Diagnostics.

Samples—and a certain stink—are accumulating at Quest Diagnostics thanks to the cyclosporiasis outbreak. On a laboratory table that normally sits empty, hundreds of feces samples are arranged in stacks six vials high. They’ve traveled by ground and plane, across seven different eastern U.S. states, for one purpose: to be tested for parasites, including cyclospora. And they’re coming faster than scientists here can test them. At Quest’s Clifton lab, workers are putting in extra hours.

Women with vaginosis are around three times as likely to also test positive for gonorrhea, chlamydia or other bacterial sexually transmitted infections, a new study says. The study results confirm guidance from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that women being treated for bacterial vaginosis should be tested for STIs, which can present with similar symptoms, researchers said in the journal O&G Open. "STIs can lead to serious reproductive and other health complications when left undetected and untreated,” senior researcher Dr. Damian Alagia said in a news release.

Quest Diagnostics president and CEO Jim Davis discusses how his company is implementing AI to help its patients on 'The Claman Countdown.'

As the liquid biopsy space has exploded in recent years, clinical laboratories are struggling to find sufficient staff to oversee and run these assays. "The problem is real," agreed Thomas Koch, senior VP and global head of research and development at Quest Diagnostics, adding that liquid biopsy "is a very fast-growing field with many players." Beyond the rise in demand for testing, test complexity has also contributed to the workforce shortage. Liquid biopsy tests often feature workflows involving dozens of steps along with sophisticated chemistries, hardware, software, and data analysis tools. "It's an entire ecosystem that is a little different from the standard clinical laboratory where you do, say, a calcium test, and then report it out," said Quest's Koch.