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Article: Fast test for anthrax works something like CAT scan.(Knight Ridder Newspapers)
- Article from:
- Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service
- Article date:
- November 14, 2001
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2001 Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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PHILADELPHIA _ The oft-repeated message that anthrax is curable if caught early might help reassure a nervous public, but there's a catch. How do you diagnose the disease early when there's no quick, accurate, simple test?
In the past five weeks, thousands of people who might have been exposed were given nasal swabs or blood tests to search for hints of the deadly germs in their bodies. Yet the most accurate of the tests can take days and are still so unreliable that, just in case, more than 30,000 people were given powerful antibiotics. Several landed in the hospital in apparent reactions to the drugs.
Responding to the crisis, the government is rapidly ...