Make Way for Better Germ Tests

Every year, millions of people see their doctors for relief of some kind of infection -- a cold, a fever, food poisoning or something more serious -- but doctors can rarely pin down the exact cause. In many cases, it’s hard to tell even whether the bug is a bacteria or a virus. That’s a huge difference, akin to not knowing whether the food on your plate is animal or vegetable.

The standard diagnostic technology for identifying microbes, decades old, is simply too slow and imprecise to help most patients. The good news is that scientists have developed far better technology, capable of diagnosing thousands of different infections quickly, and with remarkable precision. But doctors won’t be able to use it until federal regulators grant approval, and unfortunately, this process is about to get much harder, if the U.S. Food and Drug Administration stays on its current course.