A spate of wild mushroom poisonings in the mountainous provinces has alarmed doctors who fear locals are disregarding their warnings that the only way to prevent poisoning is to avoid eating wild mushrooms entirely.

A doctor examines patient Sung Diu Hong, the only survivor of a wild mushroom poisoning case in Hà Giang Province.—Photo danviet.vn

Wild mushrooms sprout in the springtime in mountainous areas, leading people who live there to increase mushroom consumption. In some cases entire families have died after eating wild mushrooms.

On April 4, the Ha Noi’s Bach Mai Hospital Centre for Anti-Poisoning received an ethnic minority man from the northern mountains province of Ha Giang, who was in critical condition of wild mushroom poisoning.

Three members of his family had already died days before after eating wild mushrooms growing on the hill.

A patient named Sung Diu Hong, born in 1966, of Thuan Hoa Commune in Vi Xuyen District, was transferred to the Center for Anti-Poisoning on 2 April in a state of alertness, abdominal pain, skin and mucosa.

Hong had coagulopathy, elevated liver enzymes and severe liver damage. After two days of treatment, doctors still didn’t dare to predict the disease progression of the patient because toxins had been absorbed into the liver.

On the morning of 28 March, Sung Diu Hong came to the hill in the back of his house to pick wild mushrooms for the family’s breakfast.

The family of four people including Sung Diu Hong, his wife Thao Thi Van, his daughter-in-law Ly Thi Pa and his son Sung Van Hoanh all ate mushrooms for breakfast.

At 4 pm the same day, all four people developed headache symptoms, nausea and vomiting food and diarrhea.

At Ha Giang Province’s General Hospital, patients were infused with water and vitamins and received dialysis and a plasma transfusion.

Sung Van Hoanh died on March 31, followed by Thao Thi Van on 1 April and Ly Thi Pa on 2 April. The cause of death was acute liver failure by wild mushroom.

Dr Nguyen Tien Dung from the Center for Anti-Poisoning said that Sung described victims eating white, bowl-size mushrooms. Doctor surmised that this was a white poisonous mushroom, containing poisonous amatoxin.

The wild mushroom causes symptoms of poisoning, usually within six to nine hours after eating.
Up to 50%of people who are poisoned by wild mushrooms will die, doctors say. The cost of treatment for mushroom poisoning cases was very high, up to hundreds of millions of dong per person.

According to Dr Dung, the victims of wild mushroom-poisoning are often very poor. Wild mushrooms are known to be delicious and sweet, so many people living in areas where they grow find them attractive. 

Doctors calling on people not to eat wild mushrooms also encountered opposition from people who say non-poisonous mushrooms are affordable and nutritious, and are unwilling to eliminate them entirely from their diets.

“However, toxic and non-toxic mushrooms are sometimes difficult to identify. Even biologists and mushroom experts must consider them carefully to distinguish between them," Dung said.
Cooked mushroom still poisonous

Mushroom poisoning has been occurring for many years in ethnic minority areas.

According to the Military Medical Academy’s report, from 2004 to 2017 there were 33 mushroom poisoning cases in Ha Giang, sickening 165 and killing 24.

In Cao Bang Province, from 2003 to 2009 there were 29 mushroom poisoning cases that sickened 81 people and killed 17 deaths.

In Bac Kan Province from 2004 to 2011 there were 28 mushroom poisoning cases, with 94 sickened and 14 deaths.

Addressing the idea that cooking a mushroom will kill all toxins within it, Dr Nguyen Trung Nguyen at the Center of Anti-Poisoning affirmed that amatoxin in mushrooms persists regardless of the temperature to which it is heated.

Some people feed a mushroom to an animal such as a dog or chicken to determine if it is poisonous. But many poisonous mushrooms affect victims only after many hours, so this method of identification is ineffective, according to Dr Nguyen.

Wild mushrooms that are eaten by ants may also be poisonous.

Some people believe that if a mushroom is brushed with a silver spoon or coin and the silver does not turn black, the mushroom is safe to eat. This is also a misconception, according to the doctor.

Many mushroom species cause nausea and diarrhea later, but then the sickness stops, leading patients and even doctors to believe the poisoning has stopped, too.

However, according to Dr Nguyen, the patient may continue to develop symptoms, including yellow eyes, jaundice, inability to eat, abdominal pain and fatigue. Gradually the patient will become delirious and enter a coma due to liver failure, experience internal bleeding and finally death.

(Source: VNS)