Family of four sickened amid wider mushroom poisoning outbreak, officials say
By Daniel Macht, Jaiden Singh, Michelle Bandur
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SACRAMENTO COUNTY, California (KCRA) — A family of four in Sacramento County recently fell ill after picking and eating wild mushrooms, the county’s public health officer said on Thursday.
Sacramento County Public Health Officer Dr. Olivia Kasirye said the family was hospitalized. It’s believed to be the first cases of their kind in the county involving Death Cap or Western Destroying Angel mushrooms amid a wider outbreak across the state.
At least 35 people who range from age from 19 months to 67 have been hospitalized in Northern California and the Central Coast after experiencing experienced amatoxin poisoning, Sacramento County health officials said.
Most cases are in the Monterey area and the San Francisco Bay Area.
Jim Adams, president of the Sacramento Area Mushroomers said the family found the toxic fungi at the William B Pond recreation area and that two of the family members are still in the hospital a week later.
“When we have above average rains, the organisms know that. And so they come out in an abundance,” said Adams.
He said the poisonous caps are popping up everywhere, but they really like growing in the moist sale and shade under Oak trees.
“These native Oaks are having a pretty big bumper crop of poisonous mushrooms this year,” Adams said.
Health officials said that wild mushrooms can remain toxic even after cooking, boiling, freezing or drying.
Sacramento County also shared photos of the mushrooms that sickened the family:
“The important thing is that these mushrooms, the poisonous mushrooms, look very similar to the safe mushrooms,” Kasirye said. “So we are advising that people do not take or eat wild mushrooms at this time. It is safest to buy your mushrooms from a store or a place where you know that these are. They’re safe. Some of the symptoms related to, eating these poisonous mushrooms include nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea.”
Other symptoms could lead to dehydration or kidney and liver failure, she said.
Adams agrees foragers don’t pick, don’t taste, don’t eat.
“They were coming up everywhere,” he said. “I hadn’t seen them in Sacramento County before.”
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