Serious teen vaping injuries are on rise again in Minnesota

Cases were hard to identify because the respiratory symptoms mimic COVID-19.

July 25, 2020 at 2:02AM
The cases represent a resurgence of a national trend of vaping injuries first detected last summer.
The cases represent a resurgence of a national trend of vaping injuries first detected last summer. (Marci Schmitt — AP file/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Vaping-related lung injuries have sent 11 people aged 14 to 46 into Minnesota hospitals over the past two months, the Minnesota Department of Health reported on Friday.

The cases represent a resurgence of a national trend of vaping injuries first detected last summer — largely among people who vaped products containing THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, but also in people who vaped nicotine-based products.

Some of the hospitalized patients suffered such severe breathing difficulties that they were placed on ventilators in hospital intensive care units.

"This public health threat got a lot of attention last year, and unfortunately it has not gone away," said state Health Commissioner Jan Malcolm.

The syndrome was labeled EVALI, or e-cigarette or vaping product use-associated lung injury, after it was tracked by officials with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. More than 2,800 cases have been reported in the U.S., including more than 100 in Minnesota, according to the latest CDC data. Of the 68 EVALI deaths as of last February, three involved people from Minnesota.

State health officials said on Friday that detecting the latest cases was complicated by the fact that the respiratory symptoms mimicked those of COVID-19. Diagnostic tests ruled out COVID-19, and some of the patients responded to steroid therapy that has proved effective against EVALI.

"With this resurgence of cases, we are advising patients with a history of vaping who are experiencing lung-injury symptoms to seek clinical care," said Dr. Ruth Lynfield, state epidemiologist. "In addition, because this can present like COVID-19, providers also need to conduct a test to rule this out."

Jeremy Olson • 612-673-7744

about the writer

Jeremy Olson

Reporter

Jeremy Olson is a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter covering health care for the Star Tribune. Trained in investigative and computer-assisted reporting, Olson has covered politics, social services, and family issues.

See More

More from Local

card image

Moving patterns in the city and throughout the metro between 2020 and 2023 were similar to the three-year period before the pandemic, according to Federal Reserve data.

card image