DRUG dealers who have deliberately cut heroin with a soil normally used in
industry may be to blame for the wave of mystery deaths among British and Irish
addicts, say infectious disease experts.
Last week government scientists identified Clostridium novyi, a
common soil bacterium, as a likely suspect in the hunt for the mystery killer of
30 heroin addicts in Britain. But it may not be the only culprit. A lethal
cocktail of soil bacteria, including anthrax in one case, seems to have
contaminated Europe鈥檚 heroin, possibly because someone doctored the drug with
earth.
快猫短视频s including Les King of Britain鈥檚 Forensic Science Service and
epidemiologist Martin Hugh-Jones of Louisiana State University at Baton Rouge,
suspect earth that is rich in oxygen-hating bacteria such as C. novyi
and Bacillus may be to blame. These bacteria have been found in either
victims or suspect heroin.
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King says looking at a heroin sample under a microscope could help settle the
question. But, he says, no one routinely analyses heroin. For the sake of public
health, 鈥渟omeone should survey the microorganisms and inorganic components in
颈迟鈥�.
Cases of the mystery illness are still emerging. Last week there were five
new victims in Scotland, six in England, and one in Dublin
(see Graphic). All
the heroin users injected into muscle and developed an abscess, then symptoms of
toxic shock. Because the symptoms are so similar to anthrax, and a Norwegian
addict died of the disease in April, scientists suspected that this infamous
bacterium might be to blame for the Scottish cases as well
(快猫短视频, 20 May, p 4).
However, tissue samples from the victims never revealed the large numbers of
bacteria typical of anthrax infection. At a meeting in Glasgow last week,
investigators said that the most probable culprit was C. novyi, which
stays near the site of initial infection and whose toxins produce similar
symptoms. Clostridium has been found in only nine victims in Glasgow,
and three are confirmed as the species C. novyi. No
Clostridium has been found in Irish victims, and the Eastern Regional
Health Authority in Dublin says it is 鈥渒eeping an open mind on the cause鈥�.
The bacteria might have been missed in some cases because they are
notoriously difficult to culture. But the important public health question, says
King, might not be which bacteria killed addicts, but where they came from.
C. novyi, the anthrax in Norway, and three additional species of
Bacillus found in heroin samples linked to deaths in Glasgow are all
anaerobic soil bacteria which lie dormant in earth in tough resistant
spores.
This suggests the heroin was contaminated with earth, says Hugh-Jones. He
believes that 鈥渄iatomaceous earth鈥�, a natural silica widely used in industry,
could be to blame. The fact that this beige powder closely resembles heroin
would possibly make it attractive to heroin dealers seeking to adulterate the
drug. The earth is frequently dug from wet, oxygen-deprived environments where
anaerobic bacteria like to live.
There is often insoluble material in heroin, says King. The heroin behind the
current outbreak was reported to be hard to dissolve. But no heroin analyses
have yet been published by Norway, Britain or Ireland. Until a government agency
takes responsibility for carrying out this kind of analysis, King fears,
outbreaks like this will continue. Andria Efthimiou-Mordaunt, editor of The
User鈥檚 Voice, a London-based drug policy magazine, says: 鈥淪omeone must
take the initiative to start testing heroin.鈥�