Addicts hospitalised as fears of outbreak grow

Three heroin addicts have been admitted to Dublin hospitals with symptoms of the "flesh-eating" disease which has also emerged among drug-users in Glasgow.

The illness is not, however, the same as one that killed 40 drug-users here and in Britain last year. Ms Elaine McKean, spokeswoman for the Greater Glasgow Health Board, confirmed that the outbreak was not caused by the Clostridium Novyi bacterium identified among intravenous drug-users last year.

"It is quite different but still very serious, serious enough that we have issued this warning even before we are certain that a widespread problem exists." She said the cause may not be contaminated heroin but dirty needles or syringes and added that "investigations are ongoing".

No details were available about the condition of the three addicts admitted to hospital here last night. Two male addicts were hospitalised in Glasgow on Tuesday suffering from necrotising fasciitis. It is understood that one has had a leg amputated.

Drug-users here have been urged to visit their GP or local hospital immediately if they notice any unusual symptoms, particularly abscesses around the site of injection.

Dr Brian O'Herlihy, director of public health with the Eastern Regional Health Authority, emphasised the "very serious danger" to heroin users, particularly those injecting into muscle.

All acute hospitals, accident and emergency clinics and drug clinics in the eastern region have been alerted and urged to report suspicious symptoms to the National Disease Surveillance Centre (NDSC).

Last summer 15 addicts were affected by an illness caused by the injection of heroin, particularly into muscle, contaminated with an anaerobic bacterium of the Clostridium family. The eight who died were aged between 22 and 51. Six were men.

The bacterium flourishes in the absence of oxygen but dies in its presence. It can exist in "suspended animation"' as spores in soil and dust. If the heroin is cut with contaminated dust, it flourishes and multiplies once injected into the oxygen-free environment of the body.

In last year's outbreak, abscesses on the skin were followed by a rapid, systemic spread through the body. Vital organs were attacked causing eventual collapse and death.

Director of the NDSC Ms Darina O'Flanagan confirmed the latest outbreak was possibly not caused by the same bacterium. She said the bacterium this time could be a member of the Group A streptococcus family. "At this stage we are just trying to isolate the illness to see if it is the same as last year's."