Wild mushroom poisonings have surged to the worst in 10 years from an unseasonal bloom of Death Caps and Western Destroying Angels including the Bay Area, health officials say.
As of Friday, 50 cases of mushroom-related poisonings — including four deaths — have been recorded since November, the California Department of Public Health said.
The worst previous outbreak, in 2016, involved 14 total cases. In a typical year, fewer than five cases of mushroom poisoning are reported.
In the Bay Area, poisonous mushrooms have been foraged in Alameda, Marin, Monterey, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo and Sonoma counties, the health department said.
Besides deaths, the outbreak has severe liver damage in children and adults and led to four liver transplants.
Authorities urged the public not to pick or consume wild mushrooms, saying the risk of potentially deadly amatoxin poisoning is “extremely high.”
“While Western Destroying Angels typically bloom into spring, Death Caps would normally be declining by this time of year,” officials said in a press release.
“Instead, these mushrooms continue to appear abundantly in multiple regions. Recent rains are suspected to be a contributing factor of this unusual resurgence of Death Cap mushrooms beyond their typical growing season.”
Death Caps and Western Destroying Angels closely resemble several edible mushroom species in both appearance and taste. The mushrooms are still poisonous even after cooking, boiling, freezing or drying.
Initial symptoms, such as watery diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, and dehydration can occur within 6 to 24 hours following ingestion of these toxic mushrooms and usually go away within a day.
However, this brief improvement “can be deceptive,” the health department said, as patients may still develop serious to fatal liver damage within 48 to 96 hours after eating the mushrooms.