Journal issues treatment guidelines: ‘Anthrax infection became part of doctors’ daily repertoire yesterday as the world’s most influential medical journal published detailed guidelines on diagnosing and treating the deadly bacteria.

Doctors are now expected to consider anthrax as a possible cause for the thousands of skin lesions and flu-like symptoms they encounter every day.

The guidelines [link lead to .pdf of article –FmH], published yesterday on the New England Journal of Medicine‘s Web site, are based on close study of the 17 Americans stricken with the disease in recent weeks.

…”Most physicians haven’t ever seen a case of anthrax. [The article] was to bring people up to speed in a medical sense,” said the article’s author, Dr. Morton Swartz of Massachusetts General Hospital’s department of medicine.’ Boston Globe