A family from Balti town – the mother, two girls aged 10 and 14 and a boy aged two months – were admitted to the hospital after they poisoned themselves with mushrooms, the head of the Emergency Admissions Section of the Balti Municipal Hospital Ala Condrea has told IPN.

According to the doctor, the mother gathered mushrooms in the forest and prepared them for dinner. After the entire family ate mushrooms, the woman breastfed the little boy. In half an hour, the children felt sick and the mother called an ambulance. All the members of the family underwent gastric lavage and will remain in the hospital for several days.

The doctor said the mushroom poisonings are very dangerous as they can lead to death. It is very easy to mix up an edible mushroom with a poisonous one. It is not recommended picking up mushrooms in the forest and from near the roadside.

The Consumer Protection Agency calls on the population to be cautious when eating mushrooms as the heavy rain of September created very good conditions for the development of both edible and poisonous mushrooms. The safety of the products sold by street vendors cannot be determined by market supervision authorities as such activities are sporadic, seasonal.

The Agency recommends buying mushrooms only from authorized places, which have quality certificates. Before sold, the mushrooms must be kept in refrigerators at temperatures of 2 - 4 degrees Celsius.

According to the Health Ministry’s National Health Management Center, 60 children younger than five died last year as a result of poisonings, suffocation, traumas, drownings and road accidents.