Throughout 46 states, 805 people have now been either sickened or killed by what the CDC (Center for Disease Control) have linked to vaping. The number as of the previous week was at 530, and now has risen by 275 in nine days. The illnesses have been reported to be widespread and of a large variety, meaning that there are no coherent symptoms, but all of the victims all have but one thing in common: they had been vaping and has consistently done so before they became ill.
According to the Massachusetts State Health Assessment, the ratio of hospitalized males to females is about 3:1 (based off 373 cases available) and that around 66 percent of the males were between the ages of 18-34 and an additional 16 percent were below the age of 18.
Many of the victims had experienced shortness of breath and overall weakness throughout their bodies. Additionally, many of the victims, now in the ICU(intensive care units) at their local hospitals, are in need of oxygen supplements and some even may need permanent ventilators to help replace the lung capacity that was lost to their ailments. Most of the patients have had mostly successful recoveries, but the doctors say that it is still too early to tell what toll the damage has done on the patient’s lungs and their immune systems.
Originally, doctors could not conclusively tell if vaping was the cause of the problems that the victims were experiencing, but around the nation, doctors conclusively realized the only way to explain these pneumonia like illnesses was the impact that vaping had had on these people.
The majority of the patients had reported vaping THC, the chemical compound most commonly found in marijuana that induces the high; however some of the patients reported only smoking nicotine. Some of the victims that died were all ready at an older age and were already dying of underlying causes, such as old age; however Mississippi health officials reported a vaping related death of a person under the age of 30.
Given that there are still so many unanswered questions that the C.D.C. have not even yet begun to cover, doctors will not be able to conclusively tell what the exact cause of the illnesses and deaths were or their specific details, despite this, they can tell that whatever the reason was, it was very much so related to vaping and the damage it inflicts on users lungs.
