Three people have died of a mysterious lung illness linked to vaping as cases skyrocket

Federal officials announced today that 450 people across 33 states have come down with a deadly lung illness that has been linked to e-cigarette use. That more than doubles the total number of reported cases nationwide — last week, the total stood at 215 possible cases in 25 states.

In addition, officials in Indiana announced today that a person in their state has died of the disease, bringing the nationwide death toll from the illness to three.

“We are committed to finding out what is making people sick,” Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said in a statement. “All available information is being carefully analyzed, and these initial findings are helping us narrow the focus of our investigation and get us closer to the answers needed to save lives.”

The exact cause of the illness remains unknown.

“While this investigation is ongoing, people should consider not using e-cigarette products,” Dana Meaney-Delman, the head of the CDC’s investigation into the illness, said in a briefing, according to The New York Times.

A series of articles published in The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) today looked deeper into the problem.

An editorial in the NEJM by David Christiani, a professor of medicine at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, echoed the CDC’s recent push to discourage people from using e-cigarettes. Christiani said that “efforts should be made to increase public awareness of the harmful effect of vaping, and physicians should discourage their patients from vaping.”

Developing…

https://www.theverge.com/2019/9/6/20853122/cdc-vaping-death-vape-e-cigarette-disease-lung-illness