CDC collaboration yields new test for anthrax.

A new test funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and developed in collaboration with a commercial partner has become the first test approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for detecting antibodies to anthrax. Produced by Immunetics, Inc., of Boston, the test provides an easy-to-use clinical laboratory tool for assessing whether patients have been infected with anthrax.

The Anthrax Quick ELISA test detects antibodies produced during infection with Bacillus anthracis--the bacterium that causes anthrax. The new test helps confirm a diagnosis of anthrax because it demonstrates that a person's immune system has responded to a protein produced by the infecting bacteria. The test is quicker and easier to interpret than previous antibody testing methods. It can be completed in less than one hour, compared with about four hours for previous testing methods. Before FDA approval of this test, very few laboratories other than those of CDC and the U.S. Army had the ability to test blood for antibodies to anthrax. The new test will be available shortly for use in state and private laboratories.

Anthrax is a serious infectious disease that most commonly occurs in wild and domestic cattle, sheep, and other herbivores. Humans can contract anthrax by handling products from infected animals or by breathing in or coming into close contact with Bacillus anthracis spores from infected animal products such as unprocessed hides and bones. Anthrax also can be transmitted to humans when anthrax spores are used as a bioterror weapon. The anthrax attacks of 2001 sickened 22 people, leading to five deaths.