# Between April 1st and August 1st 2000, over thirty heroin injectors died from a serious infection. Most of those who died have been in Dublin, Glasgow, and Manchester, but a few cases have occurred elsewhere in Britain e.g. Brighton.

# Doctors think that an infection (caused by a bug called "Clostridium") in the muscle tissue of these drug users gets steadily worse over a few days. Eventually the bacteria in the muscle release enough toxin into the bloodstream to cause a very severe illness which often leads to rapid death.

# The drug users affected have injected heroin into a muscle or under the skin (skin popping) and have had swelling, redness, and pain where they injected themselves.

# Although there have been fewer cases of this illness reported recently it is not certain whether only one batch of heroin was responsible, or if many supplies of heroin might have been affected.

# This infection can only be caught by injecting. It can't be caught by having sex with or living with a drug user who has the infection.

To reduce your risk of getting this infection, please remember;

# There is no way that you can tell if your heroin is likely to cause this infection.

# Smoke heroin instead of injecting

# If you must inject, do not inject into muscle or under the skin: make sure you hit the vein - your blood is better at killing bacteria than your muscle.

# Don't share needles, syringes, cookers/spoons or other 'works' with other drug users.

# Use as little citric acid as possible to dissolve the heroin. A lot of citric acid can damage the muscle or the body under the skin, and this damage gives bacteria a better chance to grow.

# If you inject more than one type of drug, inject each at a separate place on your body and with clean works for each injection. This is important because certain drugs (e.g. cocaine) could give bacteria in heroin a better chance to grow.

# If you get swelling, redness, or pain where you have injected yourself, or pus collects under the skin, you should get a doctor to check it out immediately, especially if the infection seems different to other you may have had in the past.