Feds give emergency approval to new Ebola testing kit for Americans

The Food and Drug Administration has granted emergency approval for a new diagnostic kit to test blood for the deadly Ebola virus, even as doctors are reporting a survival rate in one hard-hit area that has climbed to about 70 percent.

The FDA announced the move Wednesday after posting the approval on its website a day earlier. It’s the latest in a series of emergency authorizations after the federal government declared that the ongoing health crisis warranted the use of testing methods that have not cleared the ordinary regulatory approval process.