Another eight people have died and another 219 have fallen ill in a growing epidemic of severe lung illness connected to e-cigarettes, federal health officials said Thursday.

About 40 days after the federal government announced a national vaping-related lung illness outbreak, officials still say they don’t know what exactly made the 1,299 people ill. The increased case count includes people who have fallen ill since the outbreak was first announced as well as cases that had previously gone unrecognized.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one of the agencies coordinating 49 states’ work to investigate the lung illness, has age and gender information for about 1,000 patients. Those people were on average 24 years old and were predominantly male.

The agency also knows the products that 573 patients used. Three quarters vaped e-juice with THC, the key chemical in marijuana, and one third said that’s all they used. Just over one in 10 said they only vaped nicotine products.

Oregon’s caseload has also been growing, with nine victims – two of them fatal – reported as of Oct. 8. At least five of the victims purchased products at legal marijuana retail shops. State health officials have said they don’t know what precise products or chemicals made the people ill, leaving open the possibility that the patients had tampered with the products before using them.

Oregonians are waiting on two state agencies to officially ban flavored e-cigarettes – both those with THC and those with nicotine – on Friday. Gov. Kate Brown has ordered the Oregon Health Authority, which regulates tobacco, and the Oregon Liquor Control Commission, which regulates marijuana, to “immediately” ban the products.

The liquor control commission is meeting Friday to put the ban in place.

Washington issued a temporary ban on all flavored vaping products Thursday.

The CDC and the Oregon Health Authority continue to urge people not to vape.

“Anyone who uses e-cigarette, or vaping, products should not buy these products,” the federal agency said Friday.

For those Oregonians seeking to quit vaping products, the state offers help quitting nicotine. The health authority has urged people to call the Oregon Tobacco Quit Line, at 1-800-QUIT-NOW. The program offers a free consultation, help getting insurance to pay for nicotine replacement therapy and referrals to other services that help people quit. Those without insurance can get two weeks’ worth of nicotine replacement products, such as patches or gum, for free.

-- Fedor Zarkhin

fzarkhin@oregonian.com

desk: 503-294-7674|cell: 971-373-2905|@fedorzarkhin

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