Progress Made on Anthrax Cure

The search for novel treatments to cure gravely ill victims of inhaled anthrax has taken on new urgency, but experts caution they are still probably years away from useful new medicines.

The research targets the most insidious aspect of this frightening disease: By the time symptoms start, it is often too late to do anything.

By then, anthrax bacteria have flooded the bloodstream with deadly poison. Killing the germs with antibiotics may not help much, because the damage is already done.