More vaping cases crop up
Figures show rapid rise of illnesses in Harris County, state
Houston and Harris County officials have confirmed three more cases of vaping-related lung illness, the perplexing national outbreak that shows no sign of waning months after the new harmful effects of e-cigarette use began being reported this summer.
The new cases bring the Harris County total to nine, triple the number a month ago. They include four people in Houston and five in surrounding parts of the county.
The number around the state has grown to 119 cases, more than twice since late September and one of the highest in the nation.
“This is extremely complicated and difficult,” Anne Schuchat, principal deputy director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told a congressional committee Wednesday. “It’s fatal or potentially fatal, with half of the cases requiring intensive care.”
Schuchat said the national total — 1,299, as of last week — will be “considerably” worse when the agency releases its updated case report Thursday. Twentysix people have already died.
Texas announced its first such fatality last week. The victim was an older woman in North Texas.
Each of the Houston and Harris County patients required hospitalization, but all have been discharged, according to health officials. Of the most recent three, two were young adults and one was a teenager.
The outbreak has disproportionately affected young people, particularly teens, prompting a flurry of legislative measures to
curb the industry and even an announcement by President Donald Trump that he intends to ban flavored versions of the products.
Public health officials are still working to gather evidence about what the cases have in common and to determine a cause. The outbreak is considered a mystery because e-cigarettes — battery-powered devices that heat flavored, nicotinelaced liquid and turn it into a vapor the user inhales — have been used for years without known association with disease.
But suspicion is increasingly being directed at illicit products containing THC, the psychoactive component of marijuana. The latest Texas report into the state’s cases says 93 percent of users interviewed by the health officials acknowledge vaping products containing THC.
In all, 175 possible cases of vaping-related lung illness have been reported to the state, which has confirmed 56 of them, deemed 63 “probable” and rejected a link in 35. It is currently investigating 21.
There have been 31 cases, the second most in the state, in a 16county southeastern region that includes Houston. The most, 55, have occurred in the region that includes Dallas-Fort Worth.