# Anthrax/Smallpox test kits **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 10, 2001, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anthrax-smallpox-test-kits/92549 "2001-11-10T00:48:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2001, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anthrax-smallpox-test-kits/92549/1 "2001-11-10T00:48:10Z")
All the big shots say don’t start buying or taking drug treatment for anthrax and small pox, but none of them are mentioning test kits. Is it patriotic to buy a kit if I get sniffles or goosebumps, so I can avoid putting a burden on our medical professionals? Or would it be better to walk it off until I drop dead, my last rational thought being, “Maybe I shouldda got this looked at”. Is there a shortage? ---
**Author:** ![BobT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2001, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anthrax-smallpox-test-kits/92549/2 "2001-11-10T01:07:49Z")
You mean you want to give yourself a blood test and do really complicated cultures and all that sort of stuff? This isn’t like you’re checking to see if you’re pregnant. I doubt there’s a market for this. You might as well have home cancer detection kits. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2001, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anthrax-smallpox-test-kits/92549/3 "2001-11-10T04:06:43Z")
Exactly. These tests need to be done by trained professionals to get reliable results. If you are a trained professional, then hey, go to it! Plus they’re probably pretty expensive… ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2001, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anthrax-smallpox-test-kits/92549/4 "2001-11-10T15:20:18Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by BobT \* > \*\*You might as well have home cancer detection kits. \*\* There is a home kit to detect prostate cancer (it actually measures PSA not cancer _per se_), but it’s not approved by the FDA. There’s a test that is approved by the FDA and that is advertised “to Detect Early Warning Signs of Colon Cancer” (it actually measures blood in the stool, not colon cancer _per se_). ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2001, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anthrax-smallpox-test-kits/92549/5 "2001-11-10T17:34:45Z")
there’s nothing so complex about dropping a qtip into a petri dish, if somebody’s created the right media. I used to work in a lab – the chemists complained they were just cooking out of a cookbook, anybody with a day’s training could do 90% of their job. the microbiologist cultured stuff with no more real work than a gardener. The “experts” are seriously overstating the level of training necessary for this stuff. It might take a PHD to design a given bio process, but once it’s written down a bright highschool dropout could do the actual work. And this would be to produce weapons, not just detect them. There is already a company advertising an anthrax home test kit “available soon”. How good it will be, I don’t know. And, no market for it? If it works and is cheap and fast enough (i suppose a test that gives results in a week, but you’re dead in 4 days, wouldn’t help), there’s a market for kajillions of them if there’s another outbreak.