October 14, 2019
Oregon Health Authority (OHA) has implemented an emergency rule to mandate reporting of hospitalization or death due to vaping-associated lung injury (VALI). Within one working day, please report any patient who has been hospitalized or who died from radiographically or histologically demonstrated lung injury following a history of e-cigarette use or vaping in the preceding 90 days.
Reports may be made to the local public health authority or to the Oregon Health Authority (phone 971-673-1111; fax 971-673-1100). You may also complete the OHA online morbitity report.
For more details, please see the Statement of Need and Justification and the full text of the temporary rules. If you would prefer a hard copy, please contact publichealth.rules@state.or.us.
This temporary rule comes in response to the Governor’s Executive Order 19-09, effective October 9, 2019. A national outbreak of VALI was recently identified by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), with 1,080 cases, including 18 fatal cases, reported from 48 states and one U.S. territory as of October 8. Reports will help OHA systematically identify those affected by the condition so that it can investigate potential sources of injury, assess the risk to the public, and recommend appropriate preventive action.
