Ottawa drug users may be at risk of life-threatening infections brought on by tainted cocaine, as per a warning from Ottawa Public Health.

An advisory was issued by the public health unit last month after it was reported of a suspected case of febrile neutropenia/ agranulocytosis –which is a condition caused by reduced white blood cells that fight infection.

Dr. Vera Etches, Ottawa’s associate medical officer of health, informed that the case was found to be unrelated to agranulocytosis. She said another suspected Ottawa case has not been confirmed.

The first such warning was issued last March after a contaminated case of cocaine was reported in the British Columbia and Alberta.

The contaminated cocaine is laced with levamisole which is a veterinary antibiotic commonly used to treat infections caused by worms.

Recently levamisole has been detected in cocaine in various parts of western Canada which includes 10 reports from Vancouver Island and lower B. C. mainland and 39 in Alberta.

Donna Churipuy, a manager in the health protection division of the Peterborough County-City Health Unit said, "People develop a really high fever, and then chills and they get swollen glands and opportunistic infections -- painful sores in their mouth or around their anus, and other skin infections such as abscesses or lung infections, and they appear really quickly and suddenly worsen quickly".