Sixth case of vaping-related illness confirmed in Clark County

A sixth Clark County resident has suffered a severe vaping-related lung injury, the latest casualty in a national outbreak that has hospitalized more than 2,500 people, public health officials said Friday.

The new local case involves a person 18 to 24 years of age, said a spokeswoman for the Southern Nevada Health District, which has cited patient privacy reasons for declining to provide more specific information. The six Clark County cases involve one patient under 18, three between the ages of 18 and 24, and two between the ages of 25 and 49.

The announcement came as local, state and federal agencies continue to investigate cases of severe lung injury associated with the use of vaping products and e-cigarettes, battery-powered devices that deliver an aerosol by heating a liquid that can contain nicotine, flavoring and other substances.

As of Thursday, there had been 2,506 hospitalized cases reported cases reported nationwide and 54 deaths, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Most of the patients said they had vaped products containing THC, the ingredient that creates the high in marijuana. Investigators are now focusing on THC cartridges purchased on the black market. They also have zeroed in on vitamin E acetate as a “chemical of concern,” a thickening agent added to some THC vaping liquids.

Of the six local cases, five reported vaping products that contained THC. Two reported vaping nicotine products. Some reported vaping both substances, according to the health district.

Announcement of the new case in Clark County comes days after Congress passed a measure to increase the legal age nationwide for purchasing cigarettes and e-cigarettes from 18 to 21. The measure is part of a spending bill that must still be signed into law by President Donald Trump.

Vaping and cannabis summit

It also comes on the heels of state lawmakers approving funding for a health summit next year on vaping and marijuana use. Public health officials increasingly are seeing the two health concerns as intertwined.

That the investigation of vaping-related illness would point to marijuana products “was certainly a surprise for most people and has really changed our way of thinking about this,” said Stephanie Woodard, senior adviser on behavioral health for the Nevada Department of Health and Human Services.

State health efforts related to vaping “could not be specific to nicotine alone or we would be missing one of the primary drivers of this public health concern,” she said.

The summit will bring together national experts, federal representatives, universities, policy advisers, youth representatives, legislators, law enforcement and treatment and prevention agencies, as well as the general public, to help determine a strategy for addressing the increasing use of vape products and cannabis, according to a funding request from the health department and the state attorney general’s office presented last week to the Interim Finance Committee of the Nevada Legislature.

The committee on Dec. 13 approved $400,000 to the department for surveillance — the collection, analysis and interpretation of data — and $100,000 for the summit, a health department spokeswoman said. The funding comes from a state settlement with medical conglomerate Johnson &Johnson over alleged deceptive trade practices in marketing metal-on-metal hip implant devices, according to the Nevada attorney general’s office.

“We don’t really have a sense yet of what the public health impacts have been regarding cannabis and vaping,” Woodard said. “From the public health perspective, that is alarming.”

Upswing in vaping, marijuana use

Data from the state health department shows that Nevada teens, like those across the country, have taken to vaping.

In 2018, 37 percent of 12th graders, 32 percent of 10th graders and 18 percent of 8th graders in Nevada reported vaping in 2018, according to a report released by the state health department in November.

The data also shows that the use of marijuana by Nevada adults is on the rise. Adult Nevada residents who use marijuana or hashish has been steadily rising since hitting a low of 4.8 percent in 2013 to more than 14 percent in 2018, the report states.

Adult use of recreational marijuana was legalized in the state in 2017.

In 2017, nearly 37 percent of Nevada high school students reported ever having used marijuana. Almost 20 percent said they currently used marijuana, according to the report.

Contact Mary Hynes at mhynes@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0336. Follow @MaryHynes1 on Twitter. Review-Journal staff writer Glenn Puit contributed to this report.