Five dead after consuming deadly fungus

ISTANBUL

Five people died in a month due to mushroom poisoning across the country, with the experts warning citizens not to consume fungus collected from nature.

“There are some 5,000 types of mushrooms. Only 200 of them are eatable. Around 100 of them highly poisonous,” Fuat Ekiz, a gastroenterology expert told daily Milliyet on Nov. 8, adding that the rest of the mushrooms in nature may make a healthy person sick.

Lately, a couple over 60, in the northern province of Düzce, lost their lives after eating fungus they collected from a forest. Their daughter in law is struggling for life in a hospital. A man and a woman died in the Black Sea provinces of Zonguldak and Ordu and a 60-year-old man in Istanbul lost his life.

Moreover, in seven provinces, some 52 people were hospitalized due to mushroom poisoning in a month.

“This is just unawareness. People collect mushrooms they have no idea about,” Baki Remzi Suiçmez, the president of Turkish Agriculture Engineers Chamber said.

He also made a call to the health and agriculture ministries to make presentations to inform the public. “The number of poisoning cases may decrease with knowledge.”

Aysun Pekşen, an academic from Ondokuz Mayıs University, is another expert recommending the citizens to “stay away from wild mushrooms.”

“These fungi should only be collected by experts,” she stated.

When asked about the symptoms of poisoning, the expert pointed out the first two hours after eating mushrooms. “After two hours, hypotension, blurred vision, nausea, vomiting, and somnolence may start,” she explained.

Ekiz especially pointed out “amanita phalloides [death cap],” a type of mushroom, which causes poisoning that “drags people between life and death.”

“People suffer renal impairment and liver failure around four days after eating deadly fungus,” he added.

Mushrooms are neither plants nor animals. They belong in a different kingdom, the kingdom of fungi, with lichens, yeasts and molds.