As deaths hit 3, public urged to stop vaping
CHICAGO — As the number of deaths related to a mystery respiratory illness linked to vaping increased to three, state and federal public health officials warned the public Friday to refrain from vaping both nicotine and THC products, particularly those bought off the street or altered, as they continue to try to pin down the culprit.
“More information is needed to better understand a relationship between any specific products and any specific substances in those products,” said Mitch Zeller, director of the Center for Tobacco Products at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The agency is analyzing products used by hospitalized patients to try to find a common link. “Samples show a mix of results and no one substance or compound.”
Since earlier this summer, public health officials throughout the country have reported a rash of otherwise healthy and relatively young patients who are struggling to breathe coming into emergency rooms and saying they have a history of vaping nicotine and/or THC-filled e-cigarette devices.
Symptoms include breathing difficulty as well as vomiting, diarrhea and fever, officials said.
Three people have died, all of them adults, including one in Illinois, one in Oregon and one in Indiana, and a fourth death remains under investigation, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
As many as 450 people have been hospitalized across the country, officials said Friday.
Illinois and Wisconsin have the highest number of cases, and the states’ public health departments published a report Friday in the New England Journal of Medicine outlining the first 53 cases, which date to April — earlier than previously suspected.