BACTERIUM LINK TO 'ROGUE' HEROIN

Germ From Soil Could Have Led To 30 Deaths Gerard Seenan

Scientists investigating a spate of deaths among drug addicts across
Britain and Ireland believe at least 30 fatalities may be linked to a
rogue batch of heroin infected with a bacterium found in soil.

Intensive analysis in Britain and the United States has connected the
deaths of 15 addicts in Glasgow, one in Aberdeen, eight in Dublin and
at least seven in England and Wales to a toxin produced by a bacterium
which may have been inadvertently mixed with the opiate.

As health authorities complete their investigations of heroin-related
deaths over the past month, the number of cases where heroin users
have exhibited similar symptoms is rising dramatically.

Yesterday health authorities in the north-west confirmed nine cases in
Manchester and Liverpool, involving five deaths. Many more heroin
addicts across Britain and Ireland are seriously ill with the
condition, which could claim the greatest number of deaths in Britain
caused by a rogue narcotic.

The outbreak was first identified in early May when heroin addicts in
Glasgow began turning up at hospital casualty departments with huge
abscesses up to 12 inches in diameter.

The addicts, mainly women, were given antibiotics, but developed an
illness similar to septicaemia. Many suffered multiple organ failure
and died.

When the spate of heroin deaths was first spotted in Glasgow public
health officials, led by Laurence Gruer, began a nationwide search for
the cause.

Dr Gruer, a senior public health consultant with Greater Glasgow
health board, called on the help of specialists from the centres for
disease control and prevention in Atlanta. British and American
scientists now agree the deaths have been caused by a bacterium found
in soil never before associated with the deaths of drug addicts.

All those affected have been intravenous heroin users, but it is
women, more than men, who have been dying. Scientists believe this is
because women, who have a larger fat covering on their body, are more
likely to miss veins and inject directly into their muscles, where
scientists believe the bacterium thrives in the acid used to dissolve
the heroin. The bacterium would quickly be diluted by blood if
injected in the veins.

Doctors can give antibiotics to kill the bacterium, but have no way of
tackling the toxin. This explains why so many addicts have died
despite receiving hospital treatment.

Initially the anthrax bacterium used in chemical weapons was suspected
as a possible cause following a tip-off from a Norwegian doctor and
tests carried out at the Porton Down laboratory, Wiltshire, which
confirmed blood samples from two Scottish victims contained antibodies
to anthrax.

However the tests were inconclusive and anthrax was ruled
out.

Public health officials across the country yesterday reiterated their
plea to heroin addicts to stop injecting the drug and begin smoking
it. But, since smoking heroin is far less effective and much more
expensive than injecting, it is likely their pleas will fall on deaf
ears.

Dr Gruer has called on the government to consider adopting the scheme
already used with some success in Switzerland and begin offering
heroin to long-term addicts under strict supervision.

Roseanna Cunningham, shadow justice and equality minister in the
Scottish executive, yesterday called for a government inquiry into the
deaths.