It’s been a bad foraging season in California this past season, with four confirmed deaths caused by ingestion of the death cap mushroom.
Apparently it was a bumper year for the deadly mushrooms in what has been called a superbloom event. The mushrooms can easily confused with some edible varieties and there are poster boards erected in many places educating the public about the Amanita Phalloides or the death cap mushroom.
39 people in California, largely in the Bay Area and Central Coast, who have been severely sickened between November and January after eating death cap mushrooms. Four of the patients have died and three others required liver transplants, according to the California Department of Public Health. At least one small child has been poisoned.
The rash of severe mushroom poisonings marks the largest known outbreak in California and possibly the U.S. in at least four decades, according to experts, who are still trying to understand what’s driving the surge. By comparison, the state sees fewer than five severe mushroom poisonings in a typical year.
