Dr Gruer, a senior public health consultant with Greater Glasgow health board, called on the help of specialists from the centres for disease control and prevention in Atlanta. British and American scientists now agree the deaths have been caused by a bacterium found in soil never before associated with the deaths of drug addicts. All those affected have been intravenous heroin users, but it is women, more than men, who have been dying. Scientists believe this is because women, who have a larger fat covering on their body, are more likely to miss veins and inject directly into their muscles, where scientists believe the bacterium thrives in the acid used to dissolve the heroin. The bacterium would quickly be diluted by blood if injected in the veins.
Doctors can give antibiotics to kill the bacterium, but have no way of tackling the toxin.
This explains why so many addicts have died despite receiving hospital treatment. Initially the anthrax bacterium used in chemical weapons was suspected as a possible cause following a tip-off from a Norwegian doctor and tests carried out at the Porton Down laboratory, Wiltshire, which confirmed blood samples from two Scottish victims contained antibodies to anthrax. However the tests were inconclusive and anthrax was ruled out. Public health officials across the country yesterday reiterated their plea to heroin addicts to stop injecting the drug and begin smoking it. But, since smoking heroin is far less effective and much more expensive than injecting, it is likely their pleas will fall on deaf ears.