Contaminated street heroin. Relationship to clinical infections
N. M. Moustoukas, R. L. Nichols, J. W. Smith, R. E. Garey and R. R. Egan
Thirty-one samples of street heroin were analyzed bacteriologically and
chemically as to their microbial burden and chemical adulterants (fillers).
Sixty-one percent of the samples were positive for microbial growth. Many
species were isolated from the positive samples with Bacillus sp (79%) and
Aspergillus sp (10%) predominating. The level of contamination ranged from
1.6 X 10(2) to 3.7 X 10(4) organisms per gram. We obtained cultures from 16
addicts from the Chicago area and 21 from the New Orleans area who had
soft-tissue infections related to their habit. Infections in this group of
patients were usually polymicrobial; however, there was no correlation
between the organisms recovered from street heroin and the addicts'
infections. Most drug-related infections appear to be related to the
addicts' own oral and dermal microflora. No correlation was observed
between the chemical fillers and the bacteria recovered from the heroin.
