October 19, 2001 WEST PALM BEACH, Fla.(Cox News Service) - A Maryland company says it is finding a high demand for a test kit - similar to test strips used to confirm pregnancy - that it says gives instant readings for the presence of anthrax.
"Sales are going great and our supplies are exhausted," said William Nelson, chief executive officer for Tetracore LLC, a biotechnology company. New inventory should be ready in about a week, he said.
Tetracore sells only to first responders, such as fire departments, hazardous materials units and some private security companies.
Nelson said the test strip is "fairly reliable" but the results can be improved when scanned by a reader, sold for $3,500 by another firm, Alexeter technologies. Test strips sell for $495 for a box of 25.
The test strips are not being used at the American Media building in Boca Raton and the FBI is not among Tetracore's customers. The FBI, which is collecting all suspected anthrax in Palm Beach County, puts the specimens in a culture and inspects what develops after 12 to 24 hours.
Some fire-rescue chiefs say strips alone often produce false readings.
The tests are "in their infancy" and are inconclusive, said Capt. Matt Young of the West Palm Beach hazardous materials team. Palm Beach Lt. Bill Amador agreed, saying he thinks current tests are only 60 percent to 70 percent accurate.
Nelson said the strips cannot detect small amounts of anthrax, but are effective when one to two thousand spores are in the sample.
"It's not useful for finding small traces but for powders it works wonderfully," Nelson said. "If you have two or three spores, you don't have enough materials to set it off."
But to be a threat to humans, "someone must inhale 8,000 to 10,000 spores," he said.
In Tetracore's test, after the sample is placed on the strip, two lines appear if it's anthrax and one line appears if it's negative.
Other strips are made for plague, botulism and other biological hazards.
Nelson, a physician and retired U.S. Navy commander, and three other scientists founded Tetracore three years ago.
Copyright 2001 Cox News Service. All rights reserved.
