ATLANTA — U.S. health officials have linked vitamin E acetate additives to a "vast majority" of vaping illness cases.<br /><br />The CDC made those remarks in a news conference on December 20, citing the latest papers in a series of studies the agency carried out. <br /><br />The agency says it has been tracking the vaping cases since July and confirmed that incidents of illnesses have declined.<br /><br />According to a study in the New England Journal of Medicine, the CDC took bronchus and lung fluid samples from a large number of vaping illness patients across 16 states.<br /><br />Analysis found vitamin E, a substance identified in e-cigarette product samples, in 48 out of 51 patients, but not in healthy people. <br /><br />According to the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, the CDC studied 38 vaping illness patients who died or were rehospitalized after hospital discharge.<br /><br />The median time for patients to go back to the hospital was three days, and the median time from hospital discharge to death was four days.<br /><br />The CDC advises doctors to follow up on patients soon after hospital discharge.<br /><br />According to the same report, vaping illness patients over 50 years of age are more likely to die than other patients.<br /><br />The CDC says that vaping illness patients with heart diseases and diabetes are significantly more likely to be readmitted after their initial hospitalization.
