ANTHRAX and heroin. Could there be a more sensational mix of modern-day
nightmares? Yet there really are anthrax spores in some heroin in Norway. They
have killed at least one man and could be to blame for the worst year the
country鈥檚 seen for deaths among addicts. Anthrax may also be killing Scottish drug users
(鈥淟ethal injection鈥�).
And, since virtually all Europe鈥檚 supplies come from Asian
countries where anthrax is endemic, spore-laced heroin might be scattered right
along the drug鈥檚 trade routes.
And yet some will say, so what? Junkies die young anyway. Anthrax is not
communicable, so the addicts are only harming themselves.
Try telling that to the six-year-old orphaned by the latest death in
Scotland. All these deaths are personal tragedies. But there is another reason
to care about them: they tell us whether we are alert to new diseases, and yes,
even biological weapons. So the news is not all bad. We caught this
outbreak.
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South-West Asia has been supplying Europe with heroin for more than a decade.
Why should anthrax only appear now? Most heroin comes from Afghanistan, home to
some of the Western world鈥檚 arch-enemies. Maybe they have suddenly started
infecting their prime export, even if killing addicts does seem a bizarre form
of terrorism.
More likely, pure heroin was cut with a powder that included some material
from infected animals, which means this could have been happening for years. But
who bothers to autopsy dead addicts? Every few months there is a surge in deaths
which is blamed on overdosing with unusually pure heroin, and no one looks
further.
Except that this time someone did. Norwegian doctors decided to autopsy a
heroin addict who had died of a strange septicaemia, and were surprised at what
they found. Next came a series of events outside official channels. In an
informal Internet newsletter one doctor asked if anyone else had found anthrax
in heroin. At the same time, Glasgow hospitals noticed more dead addicts than
usual鈥攚ith similarly strange symptoms. The penny dropped. Otherwise, no
one would have suspected anthrax.
So let us have more openness between people with information about infectious
diseases. True it鈥檚 not always easy to share details when the police call for
silence while they track down suppliers and traffickers. But as events over the
past few weeks show, the more people talk, the easier it is to spot patterns of
disease.
Other European countries should check for infection. And let us continue to
investigate. Samples should be sent to American labs with the wherewithal to
tell us precisely where the anthrax strain came from. Maybe it was an escapee
from a weapons lab.
Paying more attention to what addicts die of will help to show which
pathogens are moving around the world, and how. Next time it might be something
even more malevolent.
