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Fears have been sparked by a report suggesting huge amounts of the A-class drug cocaine has been laced with de-worming chemicals which could rot users faces away.

The drug which is commonly snorted through the nose is being cut with a chemical called levamisole by international gangs.

The de-worming chemical is intended for farm animals and could have devastating health risks.

The poisoning can cause skin lesions and discolouration and rotting of the skin when blood cells rupture, particularly in the ears, nose and fingers.

Doctors claim the drug, used on pigs, cows and horses, leaves people “feeling they have HIV”.

Drug deaths hit record levels as the purity of heroin and cocaine increased, according to figures released last year.

But the risk to users is now even higher because of the powerful de-worming agent used to ‘bulk up’ the class A drug.

(Image: BMJ Case Reports / Mirror)

A study in the British Medical Journal said doctors were trying to treat a woman with mysterious open skin lesions and severe abdominal and joint pain but were stumped as to the cause of her symptoms.

The Mirror online reports that after running chemical tests on her hair, the team realised that the condition was caused by levamisole-tainted cocaine she'd taken.

Levamisole poisoning can cause skin lesions and discolouration and rotting of the skin when blood cells rupture, particularly in extremities such as the ears, nose and fingers.

Ingesting the chemical can also lead to a drop in white blood cell count, which leaves sufferers vulnerable to other conditions.

"It's a little bit like having HIV" said Dr Noah Craft, a dermatologist at the Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, during a 2011 spate of levamisole poisoning cases in the US.

(Image: BMJ Case Reports / Mirror)

About 10 per cent of those patients will die from severe infections - and they may be walking around like a ticking time bomb.

The authors of the study said in part they wrote the report to highlight how difficult it can be to diagnose people who don't admit to drug use.

"It is essential for patients to be honest with their health care providers, so they can deliver the right care," lead researcher Dr Tjeerd van der Veer said.

Clarification:



We have been asked to make clear that the studies referred to in the article above, which was supplied by a news agency, were published in 2015 and related to cocaine found in the US rather than the UK.