Eleven adults and six children suffered mushroom poisoning during the past five days. One of the children died. The Ministry of Health, Labor and Social Protection calls on the population to be prudent when eating mushrooms and to immediately see a doctor when the first symptoms of poisoning appear, IPN reports.
In a press release, the Ministry says the children are a vulnerable group exposed to a bigger risk of poisoning owing to the age particularities, alimentation and personal hygiene. About two hours after eating mushrooms, both the children and the adults can have nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and excessive transpiration. In six hours the person can have headaches, dizziness and worse vomiting. Severe hepatic complications and renal failure can be experienced in 72 hours and the person can die. Some of the mushrooms can become poisonous if they are eaten together with alcohol.
To prevent mushroom poisoning, one should not eat mushrooms bought from unknown persons and unauthorized places and should not eat unknown or suspicious mushrooms. Picking edible mushrooms in urban parks and squares, near roads and railroads and at waste dumps should be avoided as the mushrooms there can accumulate toxic substances and become poisonous. Children should not be involved in the collection of mushrooms and should not be given to eat mushrooms.
Mushrooms should not be canned in domestic conditions by hermetization. They can contain the botulism bacterium that cannot be destroyed by boiling during five hours.
A number of 41 cases of mushroom poisoning have been recorded so far this year. These involved 39 persons from Floresti, Donduseni, Orhei and Chisinau, seven of whom were children.
