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From what I understand (as a nurse), the first "field test" is just to check for the presence of anthrax bacilli at the scene.

Then the medical staff does a nasal swab to determine if spores are present in the nose. That takes about 3 days to get results.

At the same time a blood sample is drawn and they run a "culture" on it. That takes about 7 days to get a result--it is more precise than a nasal swab, since it shows if the person has developed antibodies to anthrax in the blood (which ONLY means they were exposed, but not neccessarily have the disease--either could be true).

Those blood cultures are precise--but since it may take some time for a persons body to develop the anitbodies, it has to be run again--in case it was too early the first time the blood was drawn. So you cant take the first blood results as a 100% definite, until its repeated more than once.

Then we have to remember that our labs arent used to dealing with this disease and any lab is capable of getting false negatives;If the testing done isnt 100% able to identify it (or) if the tech isnt paying close attention to protocol.

So in all of these situations, if I were exposed I would not feel safe until I had ;
1)nasal swabs done
2)blood cultures dont at least twice--with a period of time between both of them.
3)didnt manifest symptoms--since it seems some of the blood cultures which turn out positive in a repeated test, happen about the same time as people show symptoms of the disease.
4)I would ALWAYS take an antibiotic if I even suspected I may have been exposed--waiting for confirmation of blood cultures, is often waiting past the time period where the drugs would have a fighting chance to knock it out.

I would tend to be suspicious of ANY arabic person who presents themselves at a hospital with symptoms of pneumonia--since this is the most common misdiagnosis for inhaled anthrax.

I'm NO expert, just a nurse so this IMHO.