Outbreak of serious illness related to contaminated heroin: European network helps improve surveillance of acute serious health events

During July 2001, new warnings were issued in Britain about the possibility that a batch of contaminated heroin was back on the market in England and Scotland. The European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) in Lisbon, Portugal, alerted by the Public Health Laboratory Service (PHLS) for England and Wales, passed on these new warnings to the Reitox network of national focal points for immediate dissemination to professionals in contact with drug users throughout the European Union (1).