Fourteen people in California were poisoned in a two-week span after eating "death cap" mushrooms in late 2016, and three of them needed liver transplants to fully recover, according to a Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report from the CDC.
Here are six things to know about the infections.
1. California experienced an "unusually large" bloom of Amanita phalloides, or "death cap," mushrooms in late 2016, according to members of the Bay Area Mycological Society. The larger than usual bloom was caused by warm weather and rain.
2. Death cap mushrooms are responsible for most mushroom-related deaths across the globe. They contain amatoxins that halt protein synthesis, causing cell injury.
3. Symptoms of mushroom poisoning come in three phases: gastroenteritis with significant fluid loss, symptomatic recovery and then acute liver failure and multiorgan failure, occurring roughly three to five days after eating the mushroom.
4. California Poison Control System investigated 14 suspected cases of mushroom poisoning in the span of two weeks in December. Previously, CPCS usually encountered "only a few" such cases per year.
5. Eleven of the affected people recovered. The three other people received liver transplants because of irreversible liver failure. One of those patients also suffers permanent neurological damage.
6. "Healthcare providers should be aware of the potential for toxicity after wild mushroom ingestion, that gastrointestinal symptoms mimicking viral gastroenteritis can occur after ingestion and slowly progress to potentially fatal hepatotoxicity, and should contact the local poison center for reporting and assistance with management of these patients," according to the report.