There are now 10 cases of Unexplained Vaping-Associated Pulmonary Illness from around New York State. Other States are reporting the same symptoms, and Illinois is reporting one possible death believed to be linked to the illness. The CDC is now working to find the cause of what’s making these people sick. New York State's Health Department also issued an advisory to try and find a link to the illness. Phyllis Ellis is the Director of Health for Oneida County. She explains why reporting the illness is so important.
"When you’re looking at tracking why so many people have the same thing, you look at what are the key things that everyone has. If everyone has a respiratory disease, or if everyone went somewhere at the same time, like when you look at communicable disease. You go through the whole history. So these people, the only thing they had in common was vaping."
Many of the patients, but not all, have used products with THC, the compound found in marijuana. The key to finding a cure is diagnosing exactly what’s linking ALL the patients together. There have been no cases reported locally, but these are some of the symptoms patients are experiencing.
"Cough, shortness of breath, pleuritic pain which means pain in your lungs when you take a breath, fever, headaches, fatigue, anorexia, weight loss, a lot of different strange things that are….some could be related, and some not."
There are plenty of questions that remain unexplained, but symptoms can start days, even weeks before presentation, and all cases consistently reported regular use of various vaping products.