Vaping-related lung disease in U.S. hospitalizes 1,300, half in ICU

WASHINGTON, Oct. 11 (Xinhua) -Nearly 1,300 confirmed and probable lung injury cases associated with use of e-cigarette or vaping products were reported in the United States and half of them received treatment in the intensive care unit (ICU).Almost all those patients have been hospitalized and at least 26 people have died from the disease as of Tuesday, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

"I can't stress enough the seriousness of these lung injury associated with the use of e-cigarette or vaping products," said Anne Schuchat, principal deputy director of the CDC, on a media call Friday.

Among 573 patients with information on substances used in e-cigarette, 76 percent reported using products containing THC, a compound found in marijuana, according to CDC.The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) collected more than 725 samples of the e-cigarette products and has started testing 225 THC-containing ones. The Vitamin E acetate in oils containing THC may be a cause of the disease, since FDA found Vitamin E in 47 percent of the THC-containing samples.But Schuchat said that it would take more time to find an explanation for the epidemic and "there will be multiple causes and potentially more than one root cause.""This is an extraordinarily complicated investigation with a great diversity of products and intervening acts or actors that could be modifying these products along the way," said Mitch Zeller, director of the FDA's Center for Tobacco Products, at the media call.