Media Coverage

Earlier this year, five prominent healthcare organizations—Humana, MultiPlan, Quest Diagnostics, and UnitedHealth Group’s Optum and UnitedHealthcare—announced they would be launching a blockchain-based pilot program with the aim to improve healthcare data quality and reduce administrative costs.

An emerging bacterial threat, mycoplasma genitalium, that can be passed through sex is making some headlines across the pond as the British Association of Sexual Health and HIV recently drafted guidance aimed at better detecting and treating it. Commercial labs such as Quest Diagnostics offer a test for this STD.

The threat of Lyme disease has spread to all 50 states. Quest Diagnostics analyzed 6 million blood samples and found the tick-borne disease is now in 100 percent of the country. The most cases were in Pennsylvania, but the disease is also becoming more common in places like Florida and California.

The proportion of workplace drug tests detecting the use of marijuana, cocaine and methamphetamine is up sharply, from 3.2 percent in 2012 to 4.2 percent, according to Quest Diagnostics. With the Trump economy producing more jobs than applicants, some companies are simply dropping pot from their routine pre-employment drug screening. “Employers are saying, ‘We have a thin labor pool,’” employment lawyer James Reidy tells the Associated Press. “So are we going to test and exclude a whole group of people?”

Lyme disease is now in all 50 states and the number of cases is rising, according to a report from clinical laboratory Quest Diagnostics. The tick-borne illness, historically found mostly in the Northeast, is now growing rapidly in California and Florida, where it was not usually found in the past, according to a report from clinical laboratory Quest Diagnostics.

The New York Times reported yesterday that a new-to-the-United-States tick species has been identified in seven states in recent months, after an infestation was first discovered last summer in New Jersey. The tick is native to Asia, where it is known to carry a dangerous virus that kills 15% of the people it bites. But it has spread in recent years—to Australia, New Zealand, several Pacific islands, and now to America.

This really bites and sucks. The tick population continues to grow, Lyme Disease continues to spread, and now according to a recently released analysis from Quest Diagnostics Lyme Disease can be found in all 50 states plus Washington, D.C.

If you thought you were safe from Lyme disease because you don’t live in New England, where the tick-borne illness first appeared, think again. Now, 100 percent of the country — all 50 states plus the District — has residents who have tested positive for Lyme, a bacterial infection that can cause a wide variety of symptoms, including joint aches, fatigue, facial palsy and neck stiffness.

Every state in the nation reported residents who tested positive for Lyme disease, according to the most recent Quest Diagnostics study released last week. No longer is the tick-borne disease simply an issue for people living in New England, where it first appeared and is still prevalent.

A new report has found that the tick-borne illness Lyme disease has been detected in all 50 states, and cases continue to rise. The report from Quest Diagnostics is based on more than six million blood tests taken over the last seven years, CBS New York reports. The New Jersey-based clinical laboratory says cases of Lyme disease have exploded in areas like California and Florida, where it was not commonly seen in the past. The company believe ticks are finding it easier to survive in new regions and spreading diseases to unsuspecting residents.