HEALTH UNIT WARNS OF TAINTED COCAINE

Expert Describes 'Devastating' Symptoms

Drug users in Ottawa may be at risk of life-threatening infections
brought on by contaminated cocaine, according to a warning from Ottawa
Public Health.

The public health unit issued an advisory on Sept. 25, after it became
aware of a suspected case of febrile neutropenia/agranulocytosis -- a
decrease in white blood cells that fight infection -- in a reported
cocaine user.

Dr. Vera Etches, Ottawa's associate medical officer of health, says
the case turned out to be unrelated to agranulocytosis. She said
another suspected Ottawa case, from about a month ago, has not been
confirmed. The health unit first issued a warning last March, after
hearing about contaminated cocaine in British Columbia and Alberta.

The contaminated cocaine is laced with levamisole, a veterinary
antibiotic commonly used to treat worm infestations.

"The source of the cocaine has not been determined," said Donna
Churipuy, a manager in the health protection division of the
Peterborough County-City Health Unit, where a similar case was
discovered on Oct. 2. In that case, the patient was treated and released.

"Levamisole is not available in Canada," she added, "so it's suspected
that it's coming into the country already mixed into the cocaine."

In recent months, levamisole has been found in cocaine in various
parts of western Canada, including 10 reported incidents on Vancouver
Island and the lower B.C. mainland, and 39 in Alberta. One Alberta
death last March was attributed to levamisole-laced cocaine, while the
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services last month issued an
alert about the risk.

In the U.S., the Drug Enforcement Administration and state
laboratories found that 70 per cent of cocaine tested positive for
levamisole, as opposed to 30 per cent a year earlier.

Churipuy describes the symptoms of ingesting the levamisole-contaminated
cocaine as "devastating."

"People develop a really high fever, and then chills and they get
swollen glands and opportunistic infections -- painful sores in their
mouth or around their anus, and other skin infections such as
abscesses or lung infections, and they appear really quickly and
suddenly worsen quickly."