The death of a patient from Illinois could be the first in the United States after being sprayed

Health officials in Illinois announced Friday that a patient who had contracted a serious lung disease after his death had died, which could make it the first US-related death in the United States. smoking alternative has become popular among adolescents and young adults.

According to a press release from the Illinois Department of Health, 22 people between the ages of 17 and 38 have had a respiratory illness after using e-cigarettes or vaping over the past week.

The deceased was hospitalized for a serious respiratory illness, according to the press release. No other patient information, including name, exact age, hometown or date of death has been shared.

"The seriousness of the disease that people are living is alarming and we must make it clear that the use of electronic cigarettes and vaping can be dangerous," said the director of the IDPH, Ngozi Ezike, in the statement. "We asked a team of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to help us investigate these cases and they arrived in Illinois on Tuesday."

The State Department of Health is currently working with local health units to investigate another 12 people with respiratory symptoms including coughing, shortness of breath, fatigue, vomiting and diarrhea.

A series of vaping-related illnesses have affected teens and adults across the country in recent weeks, prompting the CDC to launch a formal investigation. At the same time, health officials in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Illinois, among other states, are trying to determine the exact cause of these "serious" lung diseases in young people who said they fired before getting sick.

Doctors say the illness is like an inhalation injury, with the lungs apparently reacting to a caustic substance. Until now, infectious diseases have been excluded.

On Wednesday, the CDC issued a press release in which 149 people had contracted a serious respiratory illness after being breathed, but no deaths had been reported so far.

Madeline Farber and Alexandra Deabler of Fox News and the Associated Press contributed to the writing of this report.