ANTHRAX CLUE TO HEROIN DEATHS

ANTHRAX, a virulent disease used as a biological weapon, could be
responsible for a spate of deaths among heroin addicts in Scotland, it was
disclosed yesterday.

Ten heroin users in Glasgow and one in Aberdeen have died of a mysterious
illness in the past three weeks, which led scientists, who had heard of a
similar death in Oslo, to send the victims' blood samples to Porton Down,
the biological defence laboratory.

Two of the five tested so far have shown low levels of antibodies to
anthrax, suggesting that the addicts were exposed to the disease through a
contaminated heroin supply.

Although the results are not conclusive, experts are carrying out tests on
the others who died and on nine more heroin addicts who have come down with
the illness. One survivor still has the black scab that is typical of
localised anthrax infection.

David Goldberg, deputy director of the Scottish Centre for Infection and
Environmental Health in Glasgow, said that tests were also being made for
anthrax spores on heroin batches seized by police in the city. Meanwhile
users were being advised to smoke the drug rather than inject it, and
especially not to inject into the muscle.

He believes that the weak results in the anthrax test may be because all the
victims were treated with antibiotics before their samples were taken.