Two more cases of heroin illness found in Glasgow

Two more cases of the mystery illness affecting heroin users in Dublin and Britain have been confirmed in the greater Glasgow area, bringing the number of confirmed cases there to 33, with 15 fatalities. Some 19 of the cases, including eight of the dead, have been women.

No further case has been reported here, where there have been 15 cases and eight deaths. Nor have there been any more in either Aberdeen or Lanarkshire in Scotland, where there have been two and one respectively.

Some 14 cases of a similar illness have also been reported in England and Wales, where seven have died. Investigations are being carried out to see if all the cases are connected. The illness, which begins with sores and abscesses on the skin where the user has been injecting, goes on to infect the blood and eventually attack the body's major organs. If left untreated, it can kill within 10 days.

Further specimens from the Glasgow and Dublin cases have been sent to specialist laboratories in Britain and Ireland and to the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, in the US. These are being tested for bacteria, particularly anaerobes - those that flourish in the absence of oxygen.

Ms Elaine McKean, spokeswoman for the Greater Glasgow Health Board, said the results were not expected for a number of weeks.