TikTok user @germanshepardfanaccount went viral after she told people she contracted chlamydia in her lungs from smoking a bad vape cartridge.
In her video, which has nearly 2 million views, she plays the "put a finger down" trend, saying: "So, put a finger down if, um, in October you got super, super sick with pneumonia and you tried to tell everybody in your family that you felt like it was something more than that...Um, you tried to tell the doctors and the hospitals that it was something more than that — you suffered with a fever for almost 13 days. Nobody believed you, they just kept testing you for COVID, testing you for antibodies, testing you for hepatitis, literally anything — everything was negative. Finally, it comes back that you have chlamydia in your lungs from vaping and smoking a bad cart."
You can watch the full TikTok here.
BuzzFeed was unable to get in contact with the user, but she did confirm some information in the comments:
She confirmed that it was from a Salt Nicotine vape:
And that the bacteria in her lungs came directly from the cartridge:
Some people who've been through the same thing shared their stories:
However, the comments were also filled with people sharing all the illnesses they've contracted from bad vape cartridges. Like this person whose friend got parasites:
This person ended up in a coma from a bad cart:
This person's lung collapsed from one:
And this person was diagnosed with EVALI, which is a dangerous, newly identified lung disease linked to vaping:
Because all of this information can be a bit overwhelming and scary, BuzzFeed spoke to Dr. Luis Chug, who is quadruple board certified in Internal Medicine, Pulmonary, Critical Care, and Sleep Medicine.
The correct terminology for "chlamydia in your lungs" is Chlamydia Pneumoniae (or C. Pneumoniae). C. Pneumoniae is a bacteria that causes respiratory tract and lung infections. "The Chlamydia family contains a total of 11 species, 3 of which can infect humans: C. Pneumoniae, C. Trachomatis and C. Psittaci. The only ones that can cause infection in the lungs in adults are C. Pneumoniae and C. Psittaci — the latter is less common and from birds," said Dr. Chug.
"The C. Trachomatis is the most common bacterial cause of sexually transmitted genital infections, or STDs. It does not cause lung infection, but it has been detected in the throat using special tests," he added.