Death Cap Mushrooms Linked to Three Deaths, Three Liver Transplants and 35 Hospitalizations
Death Cap mushrooms (Amanita Phalloides) at different stages of development
Press release from the California Department of Public Health (CDPH):
The California Department of Public Health (CDPH) is issuing an update to its December 5 health advisory as an outbreak of amatoxin poisoning continues across California. This outbreak is linked to the consumption of wild, foraged mushrooms and has caused severe liver damage in both children and adults, resulting in three adult deaths and three liver transplants to date. CDPH urges Californians not to pick or eat wild mushrooms.
Between November 18 and January 6, the California Poison Control System (CPCS) has identified 35 hospitalized cases across Northern California and the Central Coast, spanning regions from Sonoma to San Luis Obispo. Affected individuals range in age from 19 months to 67 years and include family groups and individual cases. Medical treatment for amatoxin poisoning has been provided in the following counties: Alameda, Contra Costa, Monterey, San Francisco, San Luis Obispo, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz and Sonoma. Most cases are in the Monterey and San Francisco Bay Area, though Death Cap mushrooms can be found across the state, particularly adjacent to oaks, other hardwoods and some pines.
Information provided by some affected individuals indicates that Death Cap mushrooms were collected from various locations across Northern California and the Central Coast regions, including, county, city and national park lands.
Death Cap mushrooms (Amanita Phalloides) at different stages of development
What CDPH is Doing:
CDPH continues to coordinate with CPCS and public health partners on case investigation, tracking, and developing outreach and education materials. CDPH has released public service announcements (PSAs) in three languages: English, Spanish, and Mixteco (with assistance from the San Luis Obispo Health Agency). These PSAs warn the public about the risks of mushroom foraging, or mushroom hunting, during this high-risk season when Death Cap mushrooms are abundant. Additionally, CDPH has developed poisonous mushroom webpages in English and Spanish; a PDF in Chinese that provides important health information; flyers in English, Spanish and Chinese; and, updated outbreak details and additional education resources.
What Californians Can Do:
- Avoid picking and eating wild mushrooms during this high-risk season when Death Cap mushrooms are abundant. Death Cap mushrooms are still poisonous even after cooking, boiling, freezing or drying.
- Purchase mushrooms from trusted grocery stores and retailers and exercise caution when buying mushrooms from street vendors.
- Keep children and pets away from wild mushrooms.
Seek help immediately if you or someone you know has eaten a poisonous mushroom. Contact the CPCS hotline: 1-800-222-1222. Do not wait for symptoms to appear. Treatment is more difficult once symptoms start.- 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, as patients may still develop serious to fatal liver damage within 48 to 96 hours after eating the mushrooms.
What Public Health Professionals Can Do:
- Advise residents to avoid picking and eating wild mushrooms during this high-risk season when Death Cap mushrooms are abundant. Share educational materials on Death Cap mushrooms with your communities.
- Assess whether Death Cap mushrooms are blooming in your local area. Regional and local mycological societies such as the North American Mycological Association, may be useful resources.
- Work with local partners to reduce exposure by posting advisories in public spaces where these mushrooms may be found, including in county and city parks, and coordinate with veterinarians and animal health services.
For the latest information on wild mushroom related poisonings, please visit California Poison Control System or CDPH Poisonous Wild Mushrooms (go.cdph.ca.gov/
PoisonMushrooms) also available in Spanish at CDPH Hongos Silvestres Venenosos (go.cdph.ca.gov/ HongosVenenosos). Resources:
PSAs:
- Webpages:
- Webpage in English
- Webpage in Spanish
- PDF in Chinese that mirrors the content in the above webpages
- “Wild Mushrooms: Think Before You Pick” Flow Page with materials in English, Spanish, Mixteco, Chinese, Tagalog, and Vietnamese: https://flow.page/
poisonousmushroomsafety
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Terrible way to die, once the nausea subsides you think you are in the clear but after a few days your liver is destroyed and it’s too late.
For mushroom collectors from southeast Asia in particular the traditional rules they learned don’t apply here. Our A. phalloides are an invasive species from Europe that hitched a ride on fruit trees with which they have symbiotic role.
You also see natives like A. caesaria which are good edibles, but even many experts avoid those because the possibility of misidentifying them is slight but still possible and with catastrophic consequences. Stick to chanterelles and morels where it’s hard to go wrong and even if you do all that will happen is a case of severe GI upset.
There also seems to be an uptick in the promotion of Amanita muscaria as a hallucinogen. I was informed “don’t touch” fly agaric as a kid. Different species, I know, and maybe one might get off if properly handled, but one of the dumbest things I’ve ever heard.
Never eata amanita
I eat plenty of Amanita, usually the coccora, but I’ve tried the springtime Amanita when I lived near the Bay Area.
one must be wise, of course, and understand the landscape where they live.
i always enjoyed seeing the Amanita phalloides and the velosa.
very nice and striking mushrooms adding whimsy to mild landscape of the coast live oak woodlands.
did somebody say “immigration”?
another risk, among the legion, of having large populations of strange looking immigrants living in a landscape and culture unfamiliar to both people, is that they mistake OUR mushrooms for ones that they remembered from whatever strange land they come from.
Amanita is one of the most easy to identify types of mushrooms.
the CDPH is projecting more “deeply disturbing” fungaphobia into a social fricassee already presumed bigoted and cisgender, their words.
Northern California is a Amanita sanctuary
Disagree that amanita is one of the “easiest” to recognize — yes, as a genus on whole they are easy to spot, but differentiating A. calyptoderma, velosa, caesera, etc. from A. phalloides ranges from reasonably obvious for mature “normal” specimens to pretty tricky on the fringes. More importantly the consequences of getting just one of them wrong is catastrophic. I see them but it’s just not worth the risk for me.
Risk being the the product of likelihood * impact .. chanterelles for instance harder to get wrong but if you do you’re not gonna die. Low risk. Death caps .. higher likelihood * super big impact = high risk.
“strange looking immigrants”
You found a way to bring racism into an article about mushrooms. Congratulations.
did somebody say “immigration”?
No, you did. The only utterance of that word on the entire page is yours. And yeah, why’d you try to sneak that in?
did somebody say “immigration”?
another risk, among the legion, of having large populations of strange looking immigrants living in a landscape and culture unfamiliar to both people
Not getting into any argument but that is from Canyon Oak’s comment which ABA replied to.
Correct. I’m aware of that. It’s just how it decided to nest itself. Apologies to ABA. Back to you Canyon….
Oh okay. I did find it an odd response from you. Sorry about that.
It has been proven through a study many years ago the Coccora and phalloides can hybridize…
Berserkers. The Viking took a liquified version of Muscaria before battles. Muscaria is the Alice and Wonderland mushroom. You can have two reactions to it after ingestion and puking: 1. You think you are a giant and everything around you is miniature or 2. You think you are a micro person and everything around you is huge. Quite scary. The Vikings hoped it was #1. Their extreme violence in warfare was made more brutal on Muscaria, the Viking thinking they could destroy anything in their path. And they did.
As far as the death angel, this has been a common occurrence since the 70$ in the Bay Area. It coincided with the new Hmong folks who escaped Vietnam and became American citizens for being our good friends in the war. They would pick these in Golden Gate park and got very sick, needed a liver transplant, or died.
This is not uncommon for new immigrants from SE Asia up to the present day to pick these thinking they are similar to edible varieties back home in Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, China, etc. Rather than white people attempting to make this a racial issue because they are so paranoid and delicate, it’s a live or die issue for these new Americans. They need to be educated about this and not acknowledging who is picking them and eating them, when it is one racial group, is pure stupidity at best and negligence on us at worst. So there you go. The most recent victims are from SE Asian countries, 100%, even though the PC MSM Fact Police won’t name them because it works against some strange narrative they have playing in their weak minds. They are essentially ignoring reality and getting people killed to be PC.
Don’t eat Muscaria.
Anybody who can learn to identify a chantarelle can also learn to identify and avoid a death angel Amanita. Otherwise–stick to grocery store mushrooms.
I do enjoy an occasional coccora. But it’s a risky enterprise for the ‘general public’ I think, to pick any amanita. Also they’re not that good, in my opinion.
I had never heard that phalloides was a immigrant, or migrant species from Europe, and kind of doubt it.
if they are migrants, I then say welcome!
every species even star thistle has a place on American aborigine land!
I wonder how many of these cases are linked to AI-generated foraging books or people using Google images to “identify” mushrooms.
I just cannot imagine giving a 19 month old foraged mushrooms.
It all depends, I started teaching my kid to forage when he was 3 yo.
But. yeah .. don’t bet your life on eating stuff your ‘Seek’ app says is a winner, or anything AI-generated for that matter. Ditto for anything else you see in the AI answers on Google, so much garbage and flat-out wrong information …
Medical, mental health, and mushroom identification are a few things you should never trust AI to help you with.
My first day in Botany 1A at Humboldt CalPoly in 1964, the professor told the class, “Don’t eat mushrooms unless they come in a can.”
Thank you, RHBB for this valuable information!
I specifically never eat mushrooms that come in a can. That’s why I don’t go to babe’s Pizza.
It looks like all these cases are actually from Central California, not Northern California.
San Francisco is Central California.
Out looking for edible mushrooms is a lot of fun. If you are not sure what type of mushroom you are picking just leave it. Picking everything you see is not a good idea. If you pick a death cap mushroom take it home cook it and eat it, you will become extremely sick. Eating several will give you nausea and can destroy your liver and you will probably die. I am not sure about a liver transplant at this point. I would call 911 immediately and ask for help. There are a number of good books that cover edible mushrooms. Get a book with excellent color photos. It always helps to take a knowledgeable person with you. Happy picking and be safe.
One will kill.
I was told that it depends on its size. Some folks survive and get a liver transplant. I don’t want a death cap symbol on my grave.
It takes more than color photos, you either need the skills to identify morphology conclusively or be able to key out the taxonomy … and some features require a microscope to verify.
Color photos are better than nothing. I learned through pictures and taking a knowledgeable person with me. If I need a microscope to verify if it is good or bad, I will not pick. I have never noticed any pickers using this instrument.
If you can’t identify 100%, don’t eat it
Friend of mine grew up in Redwood City 70 odd years ago. His mother went into the hills and picked wild mushrooms for dinner. The whole family went blind for a couple of days but nobody died. She had used an old wife’s tale of poisonous mushrooms would turn a silver spoon black.
my Dad used to pick wild mushrooms and bring them home to eat for breakfast on weekends. Mom would make him eat first and we would all wait, watching, eyeballing the plate of butter sautéed shrooms…. 15-minutes… dig in! Nobody died, thanks Dad :).