CONTAMINATED HEROIN FRIGHTENING ADDICTS

Fear of contaminated heroin is driving addicts to treatment centres for
help to break their habit.

Over 70 chronic drug users have turned up at clinics in the Eastern
Regional Health Authority (ERHA) area, asking to be assessed for treatment
in the last few days.

Their pleas for help follow the admission to hospital of 14 seriously ill
addicts suffering from an unidentified illness. Seven of the 14 have since
died after suffering severe abscesses and swelling all over their bodies.
The ERHA has been encouraging all heroin users to stop using the drug and
come forward for assessment to see what alternatives or treatments can be
made available to them.

Already the demand for methadone, an artificial substitute for heroin, has
increased significantly, and the ERHA is making available details of over
50 clinics, pharmacies and surgeries, where it is legally dispensed.

The authority said yesterday it expected a further increase in the numbers
availing of its services and has rostered additional staff and arranged
extended hours to deal with the extra demand. It has also set up a
freephone helpline for addicts concerned about the drug supplies they are
using, their drug taking practices or their health. The freephone number is
1800 459 459.

Attempts to identify the cause of the deaths and illness are continuing,
with the ERHA working in conjunction with gardai and health officials in
Scotland, where a similar outbreak killed nine heroin addicts in the last
few weeks.

An expert in drug related illnesses from the renowned Center for Disease
Control in Atlanta, Georgia, in the southern United States, has also
arrived in Ireland to help with the investigation. Dr Kristy Murray is
working with staff from the ERHA's Department of Public Health in Dublin,
while a colleague is based in Glasgow where the Scottish outbreak occurred.

The investigators are working on a number of theories, including the
possibility that the heroin responsible for the illnesses was unusually
pure and forced users to use dangerously high quantities of chemicals to
dilute them before injecting.

The possibility that batches of heroin were contaminated, deliberately or
accidentally, has not been ruled out either, although toxicological tests
have not yet shown up any obvious poison.