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A South Korean medical team has developed an anthrax test kit, which is able to analyze the virus within three hours it was reported Monday. The team at the medical school of Chungang University led by Professor Kim Won-yong, and CoreBio Systems (www.corebio.com), a Korean bio venture firm announced that they had created a special substance which can confirm the presence of the anthrax virus without cultivation of the "bacillus anthrasis," the cause of anthrax disease.
When suspicious unidentified white powder was found in the United States, it took 18 hours to decide if it was anthrax or not with the previous diagnosis method based on bacterial cultivation, and up to five days to confirm results.
Professor Kim said he had studied an accurate way to confirm the presence of anthrax since April, 2001, before the germ warfare attacks. He added that the kit was accurate and quick in experimental tests.
(Yim Hyeong-gyun, hyim@chosun.com )
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