Inside STAT: Flu season threatens to complicate diagnoses of vaping-related illness

(ADOBE)

As if the spate of vaping-related illnesses — 805 according to the CDC’s last count, with 12 deaths linked to the illnesses — wasn’t enough of a concern by itself, health officials are now concerned that diagnoses could be made more difficult during the upcoming flu season. Flu and other virus-borne respiratory diseases look similar to the lung diseases that have been linked to vaping — patients in both scenarios experience shortness of breath and their X-rays show similarly hazy spots. Current CDC guidelines say that physicians should rule out flu or other infectious disease before diagnosing a vaping-related illness, but the approaching winter may mean heavy vapers could increasingly become diagnosed with the flu as well. STAT’s Megan Thielking has more here.