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American Morning

Anthrax Investigation: Look at Anthrax Test Kit

Aired October 19, 2001 - 09:49   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: For every confirmed case of anthrax, dozens of false alarms and false positives. Just how do emergency workers find out if anthrax is present in a certain location? They have an anthrax test kit they use.

And CNN's Jeanne Meserve joins us from Tetracore. That's the company in Gaithersburg, Maryland that actually makes that kit.

Good morning again.

Good morning, Paula.

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And here is the kit. It looks a lot like a home-pregnancy test, and it works the same way. If you've been with us this morning you've seen it. Mix the solution with whatever substance you found, a few drops are put here. It travels across a membrane and some strips appear, and those tell you whether anthrax is present or not.

With me now is Dr. Bill Nelson, president of Tetracore.

Thank you very much for joining us.

These are available to hazardous materials team. Should they be available to the general public?

DR. BILL NELSON, CO-FOUNDER OF TETRACORE INC.: No. Hazmat teams go through an extensive amount of training. They understand how to handle the substance, how To Take care of the situation. If the home user was going to use one of these things, if you made on mistake, you erred on the negative side, you exposed yourself, if in fact it was anthrax. If, on the positive side, you activated a system, that it will be endless false alarms, and there are really -- the system already is stressed, and if you are going to be adding all that on top of it, it will make it an overwhelming burden on the hazmat response.

MESERVE: Yet they're are people very interested in marketing kits like this for home use. You've even gotten some calls this morning, haven't you?

NELSON: Yes, people who interested in distributing this for home use through basically a mass marketing thing. We really have restricted it to large corporation, security departments that have well-trained staffs and hazmat first responders. We provided an extensive amount of training. They've already gone through an extensive amount of training. These guys are professional. They understand what to do when you get to a situation.

MESERVE: Some other firms, however, are taking a different approach, and they are developing home test kits. What would your advice be to the American public about whether or not to buy those?

NELSON: If there's a concern, if you have a genuine concern, you really should get a professional in to understand what the situation is, understand what your risks were, and that you have a somebody who can test it, and if there's any concerns about the way its tested, they have alternative things that they can do, and they can take you out of harm's way immediately. If you're testing something, you are sitting there exposing yourself repeatedly to this, if it was anthrax.

If you look at the situation at the Senate building, there were 30 people who were exposed just by opening that envelope. And if you're there trying to test this yourself and playing with it, that's really not the situation.

MESERVE: And as we've said in previous shots, even when a professional uses this, the result isn't necessarily conclusive.

NELSON: That's right, this is a screening test. It will help them manage the situation. It really needs to be further tested at a certified laboratory, a laboratory who has experience in looking at anthrax.

NELSON: All right, Dr. Nelson, thanks so much. And, Paula, a note about Dr. Nelson, he has the experience to do this because he was a U.N. weapons inspector in Iraq.

Jeanne, back to you.

ZAHN: Makes perfect sense.

Jeanne Meserve, thanks so much.

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