| ■ False Lab Tests May Explain Rising Whooping Cough Numbers | 2007.08.31 |
| False lab tests may be behind a reported surge in whooping cough (pertussis) cases in the United States, according to researchers with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. They found that a regularly used lab test for whooping cough misdiagnosed cases among suspected outbreaks in New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Tennessee, the Associated Press reported. As a result of those false test results, thousands of people may have taken antibiotics unnecessarily. One New Hampshire hospital even limited the number of patients admitted because it was thought some hospital workers had the sometimes lethal respiratory infection. Previously, U.S. federal health officials said the number of reported whooping cough cases in the country had tripled since 2001, reaching 26,000 in 2005. But nearly half those cases were diagnosed using this apparently faulty lab test, the AP reported. |