Since Nov. 18 there have been more than three dozen cases of death cap poisonings reported, including the four deaths and three liver transplants, according to the health department. Many who sought medical attention suffered from rapidly evolving acute liver injury and liver failure. Several patients required admission to an intensive care unit. They have ranged in age from 19 months to 67 years old.
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.
In a typical year there are between two and five death cap poisonings, said Dr. Craig Smollin, medical director for the San Francisco Division of the California Poison Control System.
"The main thing this year is just the magnitude, the number of people ingesting this mushroom," Smollin said. "Having almost 40 is very unusual."
Warm, fall temperatures coupled with early rains are leading to a kind of "super bloom" of death caps in California this year, experts say.
Eating even a small amount can be fatal, and experts warn that a mushroom's color is not a reliable way of detecting its toxicity, and whether the death cap variety is raw, dried or cooked does not make a difference.
Laura Marcelino told the San Francisco Chronicle that her family in the Northern California town of Salinas gathered mushrooms that looked like the ones she and her husband used to forage in their native Oaxaca, a state in Southern Mexico.
"We thought it was safe," Marcelino, 36, said in Spanish. [...]
Spanish was the primary language for more than 60% of people poisoned, according to the health department.
The death cap resembles many fungi varieties from around the world that are safe to eat, and it changes in appearance in different stages, Smollin said, going from a brownish-white cap to a greenish cap.
"Unless you're an expert who studies mushrooms it can be very difficult to know," Smollin said.
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