Dubois County Health Officials Say Stop Smoking E-Cigarettes and Vapes After Hoosier Dies

FROM LOCAL SOURCES 

JASPER -- The Dubois County Health Department is urging residents to take caution and stop the use of e-cigarettes, vapes or similar products.

The Indiana State Department of Health (ISDH) has confirmed the first death of an adult Indiana resident due to severe lunch injury who reported vaping.  This is the third reported death in the nation.  Investigations of severe pulmonary disease and death related injuries is ongoing.  The investigations have not yet identified any one specific substance or e-cigarette product that is linked in all cases.  

The ISDH is investigating reports of 30 individuals with severe acute respiratory illness who reported recent e-cigarette use, vaping, or dabbing (vaping marijuana oils, extracts, or concentrates).  Indiana cases range in age from 16 to 65 and 63% are male.  The ISDH is working with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and other states responding to reports of similar cases. 

Until a definitive cause is known, a person should consider not using any type of e-cigarettes.

Please seek immediate medical attention if you have coughing, shortness of breath, and/or chest pain and have vaped in the last 90 days. 

  • Patients in these investigations have reported symptoms such as:
    • cough, shortness of breath, or chest pain
    • nausea, vomiting, or diarrhea
    • fatigue, fever, or weight loss

Some patients have reported that their symptoms developed over a few days, while others have reported that their symptoms developed over several weeks. A pulmonary infection does not appear to be causing the symptoms, which have generally not improved with antibiotic treatment alone.

As the investigation is still ongoing, healthcare providers are encouraged to report use of vaping within 90 days of symptoms occurring.  CDC, FDA, state and local health departments, and other clinical and public health partners are still investigating this multistate outbreak of severe pulmonary disease associated with e-cigarette product (devices, liquids, refill pods, and/or cartridges) use.

This ongoing investigation seeks to identify the exposures, demographic, clinical, and laboratory features and behaviors of patients. All patients have reported e-cigarette product use. Some patients have reported using e-cigarettes containing cannabinoid products, such as THC.

State health departments are working with FDA to enable collection of e-cigarette product specimens for testing at the U.S. FDA Forensic Chemistry Center.

Again, until a definitive cause is known, please take caution.  A person should consider not using any type of e-cigarettes.