The Department of Health (DOH) and other health experts on Friday, May 31, confirmed the first case of E-cigarette or Vaping Use-associated Lung Injury (EVALI)-related death in the Philippine General Hospital (PGH).
Dr. Rizalina Gonzales from the Philippine Pediatric Society said that this case is a 22-year-old male who was active in sports activity, specifically basketball, who died last 2023.
The patient had no recorded previous health issues but suffered a heart attack attributed to daily vape use.
The subject had not used cigarettes but had been using vape products for two years before his death.
This case was published in the Respirology Case Reports journal of the Asian Pacific Society of Respirology authored by Dr. Margarita Isabel Fernandez and other doctors of the PGH.
"This one is a 22-year-old male, healthy, sporty, does not have any underlying conditions, does not have any vices, and is a non-smoker," Gonzales said in a mix of English and Filipino.
"He went to PGH because he was experiencing chest tightness and then had a cough. The scan of his lungs showed something white," she added on the sidelines of the World No Tobacco Day Protecting the children from Tobacco Industry Interference Discussion and Solidarity Forum.
The health expert explained that "white-out lung" means, in layman's terms, that "it's like his clear lungs were erased because the chemicals causing inflammation blocked them."
Gonzales then explained that this caused the heart's blood vessels to become clogged, leading to a heart attack, or "myocardial infarction."
"So, it's a double whammy: his lungs were blocked, his lungs were erased, and his heart was clogged," Gonzales said.
The case of a 22-year-old patient is one of the cases of EVALI in the country.
Meanwhile, DOH Spokesperson Asec. Albert Domingo said that when an individual uses vape, the smoke causes their blood vessels to harden.
"If you do this repeatedly, as happened to our patient who used vape daily for two years, the oxygen pathways become blocked," Domingo said.
"If this is your heart, it has coronary arteries that surround it. These arteries are the ones that got clogged," the official said while using an apple to represent the heart.
"The question is, why did they get clogged? Because when the chemicals from vaping enter, the surroundings of these arteries harden," he explained.