The CDC and the FDA recommended Thursday that people stop using vapes and e-cigarettes with THC as the number of deaths from vape-related lung illness climbed above 50.
Fifty-four people have now died from e-cigarette or vaping product use-associated lung injury, or EVALI, the CDC reported Thursday. That figure has increased by seven in the past two weeks. The 54 deaths have occurred in 27 states.
In total, more than 2,500 people in all 50 states, Washington, DC, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, have been hospitalized with EVALI since the summer.
The CDC also said that Vitamin E acetate should not be added to vaping products.
In addition, the CDC released initial findings about which products EVALI patients were using at the time they were sickened. The agency said that Dank Vapes — a class of THC vapes of "unknown origin" mainly used in the northeast and south was the most commonly reported product brand used by EVALI patients. TKO and Smart Cart brands were reported as common products used by EVALI users in the West, and Rove users were likely to be sickened with the disease in the Midwest.
