NATALIE ALLEN, CNN ANCHOR: In Great Britain, scientists say a bad batch of heroin appears to have killed almost three dozen people. Now experts want to know how the drugs become contaminated. CNN's Richard Blystone has that story.</s>RICHARD BLYSTONE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Whether it's just one tainted batch of heroin or many, investigators told a Glasgow, Scotland news conference, a little-known bacterium called Clostridium novyi Type A is the prime suspect in a rash of mysterious deaths of addicts in Glasgow, and elsewhere in Scotland, and possibly in similar cases in England and Ireland. The bacteria are found in soil and animals, not usually in humans, but their dormant spores can awaken and produce toxins.</s>DR. BRIAN DUERDEN, RESEARCHER: It's not the bacteria themselves circulating in the body, they stay local, but the toxins are what do the real damage.</s>BLYSTONE: The damage: swellings, abscesses, followed by toxic shock and death. Clostridium infection has been confirmed only in Scotland, and not even in all of its 40 cases and 17 deaths. But in all, at least 32 heroin users have died in similar circumstances since the phenomenon came to light six weeks ago -- other victims in Manchester and Liverpool, England, and Dublin, Ireland. The investigators say there's no danger to anymore not using contaminated heroin. Victims seem to be those who inject heroin into muscles rather than veins. Much more research needs to be done, they say. But meanwhile, health officials have issued warnings to drug users, urging them to smoke their heroin instead of injecting it. Richard Blystone, CNN, London.
Bad Batch of Heroin Believed Responsible for 32 Deaths in Europe