While more than 2,500 people have been hospitalized with EVALI — a severe lung diseased linked to vaping and e-cigarettes — the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says the number of cases of the disease are now on the decline.
In a press release Friday, the CDC confirmed that hospitalizations linked to EVALI rose sharply in June, peaked in September and have been on the decline since then. The CDC noted that emergency room visits linked to EVALI remain higher now than prior to the outbreak in June.
The CDC also published a report in the New England Journal of Medicine Friday, that states that there is a link between vapes containing Vitamin E acetate and cases of EVALI. The agency said that the chemical was found in the bronchoalveolar lavage fluid of 48 of 51 EVALI patients who were tested. The chemical was not found in all healthy patients who were tested.
The CDC's report comes a day after the agency reported that the amount of people killed by EVALI cases had risen above 50. So far, 54 people have died of the disease in 27 states since the outbreak began in June.
Alex Hider is a writer for the E.W. Scripps National Desk. Follow him on Twitter @alexhider.
