Avian Flu Diary: CDC COCA Call This Week: Severe Lung Illness Associated with Using E-Cigarette Products

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Late this week (Thursday) the CDC will hold a COCA call on their recent investigation into severe lung injury associated with the use of E-cigarettes or `vaping'.

Primarily of interest to clinicians and healthcare providers, COCA (Clinician Outreach Communication Activity) calls are designed to ensure that practitioners have up-to-date information for their practices.

While the alarm went out less than a month ago (see CDC Clinical Action: Unexplained Vaping-Associated Pulmonary Illness), already nearly 400 probable cases have been identified, along with 6 deaths (see CDC UPDATE).

As there is a high likelihood that these initial numbers represent just the tip of the pyramid (see CDC graphic below), and so the CDC is trying to get the word out to practitioners on how to recognize - and report - suspected cases.

Details on Thursday's COCA call follow. This is likely to be a `hot ticket' event, so you'll probably want to log in early.

Save the Date: COCA Call: Severe Lung Illness Associated with Using E-Cigarette Products

Date: Thursday, September 19, 2019

Time: 2:00pm-3:00pm (Eastern Time)

Overview

During this COCA Call, clinicians will learn background information on the multistate outbreak of severe pulmonary disease associated with using e-cigarette products and CDC experts will provide recommendations based on currently available information.

COCA Call Objectives
Call Materials
Presenters
Call Information
Additional Resources

At the conclusion of the session, the participant will be able to accomplish the following:

Cite background information on the topic covered during the presentation.

Discuss CDC’s role in the topic covered during the presentation.

Describe the topic’s implications for clinicians.

Discuss concerns and/or issues related to preparedness for and/or response to urgent public health threats.

Promote health improvement, wellness, and disease prevention in cooperation with patients, communities, at-risk populations, and other members of an interprofessional team of health care providers.

In case you missed it, ove the past 3 weeks the CDC held a teleconference (audio & transcript below) on the their investigation, and the MMWR has released interim guidance and an investigative report from North Carolina.