Experts Link Addicts’ Deaths to a Bacterium
Scientists have pinpointed a highly toxic bacterium as the cause of a mysterious illness that has killed at least 35 heroin addicts, public health officials said Thursday.
The source of the illness, which first emerged in Glasgow and has been found in other areas of Scotland, as well as in England and Dublin, Ireland, had baffled health chiefs for more than a month. Sixty-four infectious cases have been confirmed.
Scientists at the Public Health Laboratory Service in Cardiff, Wales, and experts at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta identified the culprit as a form of the clostridium bacterium.
Experts believe that a batch of heroin probably was accidentally contaminated when the drug was being mixed with other substances before sale.
Dr. Jai Lingappa of the CDC said scientists still need to clarify how the bacterium contributed to the illness.
“We also want to learn more about why these people became sick and others didn’t,” he said.
Clostridium novyi Type A is commonly found in soil and dust and can occur in animal droppings. It grows only when there is no oxygen, which makes it difficult to identify in a laboratory.
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