Yet another person has died from eating a toxic variety of mushroom that has been blooming recently in California — bringing the state’s death toll to four, health officials said.
The latest victim is a Contra Costa County man who died Tuesday after consuming highly dangerous death cap mushrooms.
The “unprecedented” wave of poisonings has also sickened at least 39 people statewide since mid November, according to the California Department of Public Health.
Three of the victims have had to have liver transplants.
The culprit has been identified as Amanita phalloides, aka the death cap, which is a deceptive fungus that looks almost identical to common, edible button mushrooms, but packs a lethal punch.
“A single bite of the mushroom could cause significant toxicity,” warned Dr. Craig Smollin, medical director for the San Francisco Division of the California Poison Control System.
The stats are staggering for a state that reportedly usually sees fewer than five such poisonings a year.
Officials warn that under no circumstances should people eat wild mushrooms, underscoring the “only safe mushroomsto eat are from grocery stores or markets.”
The horror of the death cap lies in its deceptive symptoms. Victims typically experience violent vomiting and diarrhea with six to 24 hours of ingestion, public health officials state. Then, in a cruel twist, they often feel better for a day or two. But while the patient thinks they’ve recovered the toxin is quietly attacking the liver, sometimes leading to fatal damage.
Cooking, boiling, or freezing the mushrooms does nothing to neutralize the poison.
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Death cap mushroom poisoning cases that have resulted in hospitalizations have been reported in Alameda, Contra Costa, Monterey, San Francisco, San Luis Obispo, San Mateo, Sacramento, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, and Sonoma counties.
The post Yet another person dies from eating toxic ‘death cap’ mushroom in Calif. appeared first on New York Post.
