Appropriate therapy must be started as soon as possible since, most often, death occurs within 10 days following diagnosis, stressing the need for an anticipated diagnosis.
Current diagnostic procedures, whether direct or indirect, have limitations. These are particularly obvious during night duty since they require both a particular expertise to avoid false positive and false negative results (Indian ink staining) or a prolonged preparation time (centrifugation and/or pronase incubation) to reach adequate sensitivity.