SOIL BUG BLAMED IN 30 HEROIN DEATHS IN UK, IRELAND

LONDON (Reuters) - Scientists in Scotland said on Friday they were
near to isolating a virulent bacterium that has caused the painful
deaths of 30 heroin users in Britain and Ireland in the past six weeks.

In one of the worst spates of drug deaths in the countries' history,
heroin addicts in Scotland, Ireland and England have succumbed to a
painful mystery illness that powerful antibiotics have been unable to
cure.

One Scottish parliamentarian has even called for a government inquiry
into the deaths.

``The focus now is on microbiology,'' said Laurence Gruer of the
Greater Glasgow Health Board and who is coordinating efforts to end
the crisis.

``We believe a bacteria from the clostridia family has been cut into
the heroin. The bugs are found in dirt or dust and they resist heat
and acid. If found in heroin, they can survive a very long time,'' he
said.

Irish and Scottish authorities last month called in help from the U.S.
Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta to identify the cause of the
illness after a number of heroin users died in Dublin and Glasgow.

Health officials said the affected intravenous drug users had been
injecting heroin into muscle, where infection develops and toxins
spread through the body, attacking vital organs.

Scientists said if injected into a vein, the bacteria would be carried
away in the bloodstream. But they have warned heroin users to stop
injecting the drug and to smoke it instead.

Since no similar cases have been reported in southern England or in
Europe, scientists said they believe the heroin was adulterated after
it reached northern Britain or Ireland.

Most heroin enters Britain through the English Channel ports after an
overland trip from Afghanistan or Pakistan.

Street Users Vulnerable

The deaths, 25 in Scotland and Ireland and five in the northern
English cities of Manchester and Liverpool, have raised fresh concerns
about how heroin users are treated in Britain.

``These deaths reveal just how vulnerable users of street heroin
are,'' said Gruer. ``The only way to keep some addicts alive is to
give them clean heroin. It is done in Switzerland and it is the only
solution for a group of hard-core addicts.''

Methadone treatment for drug addiction is common in Britain and
prescription heroin treatment has been experimented with, but neither
method is entirely accepted.

``It is of no use prescribing methadone or heroin in Britain,'' said
Adrian Lee, spokesman for the PROMIS drug rehabilitation clinics.

``More people die from methadone abuse than from heroin in this
country. What is really needed is a long overdue coordinated treatment
program,'' he said.

Scientists said the crisis appears to have crested, but health
agencies will continue to run messages in British and Irish newspapers
about the dangers of heroin use.