DRUG DEATHS BUG 'SPREADING'

A mystery infection linked to drug injection by heroin addicts is thought
to have spread to England and Wales and claimed seven more victims, public
health officials confirmed last night.

The deaths are being examined for links with serious outbreaks of the
condition in Scotland and the Irish Republic where 18 users of the drug
have died and 22 are seriously ill.

The location of the latest deaths is not being disclosed until postmortem
tests have been completed and double-checked, but doctors said that the
symptoms are closely matched. Noel Gill of the public health laboratory
service said that a further seven English and Welsh drug-users were ill
with the condition and were also being tested.

"This does give cause for concern," he said. "What has been happening in
Glasgow and Dublin is unusual. We are still looking at the cases in England
and Wales and it will be five or six days before we know whether the cases
are linked, but they do seem to have common factors."

An American expert on epidemics and infection has been drafted into a
government team which is working on continuous, 24-hour shifts to isolate
the bacterium involved in the infection, which appears to strike when
needles are used on muscles or under the skin, instead of directly into
veins. Jai Lingappa has been seconded to Glasgow by the US centre for
disease control and prevention in Atlanta, Georgia, which has also been
sent tissue from Scottish and Irish victims.

The spread of effects via large internal abcesses is rapid and culminates
in an attack on the heart, kidneys and liver. Once the vital organs have
been reached, treatment is useless.

The power and speed of the infection led to initial theories last week that
outbreaks in Glasgow, Aberdeen, Dublin and Counties Wicklow and Kildare
were caused by anthrax. But the emergence of a new and unknown bug was
confirmed after tests on the first victims.

Health officials in other European countries have been alerted and customs
and excise are co-operating in checks on consignments of drugs from the
Indian sub-continent which may have been tainted.

Doctors said earlier this week that they were involved in a race against
time to prevent the infection spreading from limited areas in Scotland and
the Irish Republic.