[George from New England]

"I am willing to bet on misdiagnosis."
Consider the following...
Anthrax does occur naturally. Lots of old people die each year. None of them in the past have been tested for anthrax until now. Now that we're starting alot of anthrax testing, we are going to see a few cases here and there.
Panic, no. Be advised, yes.

[rebdov]

I do not know what tests are needed to make the preliminary diagnosis. But since most hospital labs have not had a demand in the past to do the testing it would not surprise me if they messed up. I know from personal experience, and I'll bet there are plenty of Freepers who have shared the experience, that labs have messed up routine tests. I am talking about the kind they do thousands of daily. The techs are under a lot of pressure for volume production. Quality control in labs is not as good as we would expect. Whenever results come back that are not near the expected numbers, my doctors run the tests again. SOmetimes they have changed labs to run a second time just to be sure that numbers are valid.