First case of e-cigarette lung disease reported in Argentina

This news article published on October 23, 2019 in Argentina reporta a man 30 years old who is in the hospital with a lung disease similar to the one seen in the US, Britian, Japan and elsewhere: https://www.pagina12.com.ar/226719-cigarrillo-electronico-confirman-el-primer-caso-grave .

The article is in Spanish.  Here is the translation from Google translate:

Electronic cigarette: confirm the first serious case

A young man presented a rare condition associated with vaping and was admitted

The man presented a "alveolar proteinosis" picture. It is a rare disease that can cause complications and leave sequelae.

For the first time in Argentina a man had to be admitted for a condition caused by the electronic cigarette.

They confirm the first case in Argentina of a hospitalized patient with a serious lung condition caused by the consumption of electronic cigarettes. According to the information that transcended, it would be a young man under 30 who had been vaping for seven months. The picture, which was first interpreted as pneumonia, corresponds to that of an "alveolar proteinosis," a rare disease that can cause complications and leave sequelae.

The man remains in a private clinic in the City of Buenos Aires and maintains a favorable evolution. According to the doctors who had access to the case, the patient would have entered the clinic with a similar picture to severe pneumonia. His condition was serious.

"At first we thought it was severe pneumonia, but then we discovered an alveolar proteinosis, a rare vaping-related disease," confirmed the bronchoscopist Roxana Berenguer about the patient in a private sanatorium.

As it was learned, the man smoked conventional cigarette for 15 years but in recent months he had decided to switch to the electronic device. "About 90 days ago he began to feel severe chest pains and a considerable lack of air, until a tomography revealed a strange color of his lungs and an advanced organic deterioration," Berenguer said in statements to Clarin newspaper.

The tobacco specialist pulmonologist and member of the Argentine Association of Respiratory Medicine Cristina Borrajo added that, according to confirmed information, the boy did not have any infectious pathology or underlying disease, so this strange disease was associated with the only differentiable element: Electronic cigarette consumption.

"He made the same picture that has been described in the United States, a watery and severe disease, without any infection or basic pathology, associated with vaping," said Borrajo, who added that there may be more cases not reported because the clinics do not have the obligation to report to the Ministry of Health, as with other diseases.

In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported up to 26 deaths and more than 1,200 cases of various lung injuries associated with the use of electronic cigarettes.

From the Secretary of Health they confirmed that they still do not have official information about the case, because health effectors do not have the obligation to report, but that they still have reasons to be worried.

According to the latest survey on health indicators, in the population of adolescents between 13 and 15 years old, it was detected that 7 percent of the boys consume electronic cigarettes in contrast to 1 percent of the adult population. “It is sold with flavors with tastes like chewing gum or other goodies and the goodies are for the kids. Adolescents are clearly the target audience, ”said Verónica Schoj, director of the Health Promotion and Control of Noncommunicable Diseases program.

The official recalled that the electronic cigarette is illegal in the country since 2011, when ANMAT banned importation, sale and marketing. “We have to end the three myths that electronic cigarettes have: it is not a product of reduced damage with respect to conventional cigarettes, it is not a product that is used to quit smoking and it is a mistake to talk about vaping because it is not steam, it has gases and chemical and carcinogenic components, ”concluded Schoj.