HEROIN ILLNESS TOLL NOW 11

AN ILLNESS affecting heroin users has claimed its 11th life in two weeks.
The male heroin user died in Stobhill Hospital, Glasgow, yesterday.

A spokeswoman for Greater Glasgow Health Board said: "Sadly, there has been
a further death, a male who was admitted to Stobhill Hospital died today.
There have now been 11 deaths."

The board is still investigating the cause of the illness, which has hit
addicts who injected heroin into muscle rather than veins.

Meanwhile, scientists at Porton Down, Wiltshire, the home of the Ministry of
Defence's biological warfare establishment, are investigating whether
anthrax, the bacterium used in germ warfare, could be to blame for the
deaths.

The alarm was sounded after anthrax bacilli were found in the spinal fluid
of a Norwegian addict who died in April after injecting heroin into muscle.

It was feared there could be a link with the Scottish victims.