California’s Deadly Death Cap Mushroom Outbreak
Move over Hollywood — California’s latest horror hit isn’t on the screen, it’s sprouting from the forest floor.
A freak weather-fueled super-bloom of Death Cap mushrooms — the world’s most infamous toxic fungi — has turned casual foragers into tragic headlines.
Since mid-November, four people have died, three required life-saving liver transplants and more than three dozen fell ill after mistaking these killers for a side-dish, according to multiple media reports.
Typically, California sees fewer than five poisonings a year, according to the California Department of Public Health (CPH), but warm autumn temps and early rains have created the perfect fungi apocalypse.
The government agency has not officially banned wild mushroom foraging, but it has issued urgent health advisories against the practice and consuming wild mushrooms, especially in high-risk areas like the Bay Area and Monterey.
The death cap is one of the most poisonous mushrooms in the world and is part of a small group of mushrooms containing amatoxins, which are highly potent compounds causing 90% of fatal mushroom poisonings globally. They are in city parks and in forests, often under oak trees, warned the CPH.
“People who pick mushrooms have to be incredibly careful,” Julie Schreiber, an expert with the North American Mycologocal Association, told The Post. “There is no telltale sign of difference between the poisonous mushrooms and edible mushrooms.
“You have to be 100% CERTAIN before you ingest these mushrooms.”
Symptoms start within with nausea, cramps, diarrhea and vomiting within six to 24 hours — and can even seem to improve — before a deadly crash occurs 48-96 hours after eating.
Many patients required admittance to intensive care units. Victims range from a 19-month-old toddler to an 67-year-old adult.
