Contaminated Street Heroin. Relationship to Clinical Infections

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.