Pubdate: Tue, 30 May 2000
Source: Irish Examiner (Ireland)
Copyright: Examiner Publications Ltd, 2000
Contact:  http://www.examiner.ie/
Author: Caroline O'Doherty

CONTAMINATED HEROIN FRIGHTENING ADDICTS

Fear of contaminated heroin is driving addicts to treatment centres for 
help to break their habit.

Over 70 chronic drug users have turned up at clinics in the Eastern 
Regional Health Authority (ERHA) area, asking to be assessed for treatment 
in the last few days.

Their pleas for help follow the admission to hospital of 14 seriously ill 
addicts suffering from an unidentified illness. Seven of the 14 have since 
died after suffering severe abscesses and swelling all over their bodies. 
The ERHA has been encouraging all heroin users to stop using the drug and 
come forward for assessment to see what alternatives or treatments can be 
made available to them.

Already the demand for methadone, an artificial substitute for heroin, has 
increased significantly, and the ERHA is making available details of over 
50 clinics, pharmacies and surgeries, where it is legally dispensed.

The authority said yesterday it expected a further increase in the numbers 
availing of its services and has rostered additional staff and arranged 
extended hours to deal with the extra demand. It has also set up a 
freephone helpline for addicts concerned about the drug supplies they are 
using, their drug taking practices or their health. The freephone number is 
1800 459 459.

Attempts to identify the cause of the deaths and illness are continuing, 
with the ERHA working in conjunction with gardai and health officials in 
Scotland, where a similar outbreak killed nine heroin addicts in the last 
few weeks.

An expert in drug related illnesses from the renowned Center for Disease 
Control in Atlanta, Georgia, in the southern United States, has also 
arrived in Ireland to help with the investigation. Dr Kristy Murray is 
working with staff from the ERHA's Department of Public Health in Dublin, 
while a colleague is based in Glasgow where the Scottish outbreak occurred.

The investigators are working on a number of theories, including the 
possibility that the heroin responsible for the illnesses was unusually 
pure and forced users to use dangerously high quantities of chemicals to 
dilute them before injecting.

The possibility that batches of heroin were contaminated, deliberately or 
accidentally, has not been ruled out either, although toxicological tests 
have not yet shown up any obvious poison.
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