Number of known vaping-related illnesses jumps to over 1,000
There are more than 1,000 confirmed or probable cases of vaping-related lung injury across the US, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on Thursday, including 18 deaths.
Most of the cases involved young men who said they had a history of using liquids that contained tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the ingredient that gives marijuana its high.
The CDC said there were 1080 cases reported in 48 states and the US Virgin Islands as of 1 October, a 275-case increase from last week.
The CDC principal deputy director, Dr Anne Schuchat, said cases were “continuing at a brisk pace” but cautioned that the increase from last week was a combination of new patients and recent reporting of previously identified patients.
Of those found to have the lung injury, which can cause severe shortness of breath, fatigue and chest pain, 70% were male and 80% were under 35 years old. Schuchat told Congress last week that 100 people were investigating the injuries, but the government officials had not determined what caused the outbreak.
In the meantime, the CDC recommends US consumers avoid all vaping products – especially products containing THC and bought off the street.
In a first-of-its-kind study published this week, Mayo Clinic researchers said the deaths from vaping-related injury could be caused by a mix of “toxic chemical fumes”.
In a study published on Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine, the researchers said they examined lung biopsies from 17 patients who had vaped and were suspected to have a vaping-related respiratory problems. The images and analysis showed injuries to their lungs resembling toxic chemical burns.
Dr Brandon Larsen, a surgical pathologist at Mayo Clinic Arizona and a lead author of the study, said the researchers saw “a severe chemical injury” much different from what doctors see in tobacco or marijuana smokers. Larsen said: “I think we’ve only seen the tip of the iceberg.”