Flu season threatens to complicate diagnoses of vaping-related illness

Public health experts are cautioning that the coming flu season could complicate attempts to diagnose new cases of a mysterious vaping-related illness — and, in turn, make it more difficult to track down the cause.

The issue, experts say, is that flu and other respiratory viruses can, in many ways, look strikingly similar to a case of vaping-related illness: Symptoms include shortness of breath, night sweats, low oxygen levels, and hazy spots on a lung X-ray.

“It’s going to be difficult to tease apart