It can be recalled that in November, a group of fungus hunters has spotted a large bloom of wild "death cap" mushrooms in the greater San Francisco Bay area. Now, it is being thought as the primary contributor to the condition of 14 Northern California residents as they experienced severe illnesses following their consumption of the said fungus. As of writing, it was found that apart from those 14 who were poisoned, three people are allegedly in need of liver transplants, including an 18-month-old girl.
Prior to the unprecedented poisoning incident, it was found that few details were known about the rare outbreak until doctors from across Northern California have documented the sickness in CDC's Prevention Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. As it turns out, the death cap mushroom has long been considered as one of the world's deadliest mushrooms that produce a poisonous toxin that becomes volatile as soon as the gastrointestinal tract absorbs it. Usually, following the ingestion of the mushroom, its toxins work swiftly to kill cells where patients are said to feel severely dehydrated, suffer from diarrhea, vomiting, and cramping until the body's organs begin to fail.
Meanwhile, it was found that these mushrooms are most abundant during rainy fall and winter months, but they also have the ability to survive throughout the year in coastal fog in California. That said, the CDC has allegedly discouraged hunting for wild mushrooms and consuming any of them. In addition, the death cap mushroom has also been notorious for 90 percent of mushroom poisonings around the world.
Ultimately, certain reports claim that a 26-year-old woman received wild mushrooms from someone she doesn't know who had picked them earlier in the day in the mountains. As of press time, healthcare practitioners and scientists are reportedly conducting a clinical trial in the U.S. of a possible antidote for the mushroom poison.