Drugs in Britain: special report
Guardian
Wednesday May 31, 2000
An unidentified infection that has been killing heroin addicts in Scotland and Ireland has claimed another victim, health officials in Glasgow said yesterday. Twenty-six drug users in Glasgow and 14 in Dublin have contracted the illness; 18 of them have died.
In Glasgow the illness emerged early this month, with 17 of the 26 cases affecting women and eight women being among the 12 dead.
All are believed to have injected heroin direct into muscle tissue and have suffered severe inflammation around the site of the injection.
The Dublin cases have followed a similar pattern as far as the illness is concerned, but most of the victims have been men.
Health officials in Glasgow said they had spoken to their Irish counterparts and concluded that the two outbreaks were likely to have the same cause.
Last week tests at the chemical warfare research centre in Porton Down, Wiltshire, ruled out anthrax, which scientists had suggested as the cause of the Glasgow outbreak.
American specialists have been called in to help the investigations in both cities. Tissue samples from those affected have been sent to the centre for disease control and prevention in Atlanta, Georgia.
Kirsty Scott
Heroin addicts' killer bug identified as untreatable
Drugs in Britain: special report
Gerard Seenan
Guardian
Friday June 16, 2000
Health officials yesterday confirmed they had isolated the bacterium they believe to be responsible for the deaths of 35 heroin addicts across Britain and Ireland - but cannot treat the virulent toxin it produces.
After exhaustive worldwide research, scientists are now certain the clostridium bacteria is responsible for the death of 17 heroin addicts in Glasgow. They have also linked it to the deaths of the other addicts, but must await lab results for confirmation.
The bacterium is well known to scientists, but it generally affects animals rather than humans. Large scale human infection has not been recorded since outbreaks in the trenches of the first world war.
Officials first became aware of the illness in May when drug addicts began appearing at Glasgow hospitals with abscesses up to 12 inches in diameter. Many died within hours.
Investigators believe soil infected with the bug must have found its way into the heroin when it was being prepared for sale.