Heroin user infected with anthrax

The unnamed user is the first recorded case of anthrax transmission through drugs in England.

Yesterday the Health Protection Agency and NHS London said the user was being treated in a London hospital.

There are similarities to the Scottish cases, suggesting the heroin – or a contaminated cutting agent mixed with it – is the source of infection.

Health Protection Agency director Dr Brian McCloskey said: "There is no evidence of person-to-person transmission in this case and I'd like to reassure people that the risk to the general population, including close family members of the infected patient, is negligible.

"It is extremely rare for anthrax to be spread from person to person."

He added: "While public health investigations are ongoing, it must be assumed that all heroin in London carries the risk of anthrax contamination."

The unnamed person was an injecting drug user.

Eight people have died so far in Scotland after being contaminated.

Anthrax is a deadly bacterial infection which occurs mostly in animals in Asia and Africa. Humans are seldom infected.

Tests have shown the strain of anthrax found in the contaminated heroin in the UK is indistinguishable from a strain isolated from a heroin user who died in Germany in December.

This suggests the anthrax contamination could come from a single source.