INQUIRY INTO SPATE OF HEROIN DEATHS

A FATAL Accident Inquiry into the deaths of 18 people who were victims of
an apparently contaminated batch of heroin will be held in Glasgow next month.

The victims - ten women and eight men aged between 19 and 44 - are
understood to have died suddenly after injecting the contaminated drug.

The heroin first came to light last April after a user was struck down by a
mystery illness in England. More than 30 people across the UK and Ireland
are believed to have died after taking the drug and others had to be
treated when they became seriously ill.

A special police unit was established to deal with the spate of deaths and
medical experts from the United States were called in to help track down
the cause. All of the victims developed a serious abscess after they had
injected into muscle or accidentally outside a vein. Some of them died
within hours of taking the drug.

Last June health officials in Glasgow said they suspected the illness had
been caused by anaerobic bacteria, which live in the absence of oxygen, and
cause illnesses such as tetanus.