{"id":140398,"date":"2026-01-19T19:09:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-19T19:09:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/140398\/"},"modified":"2026-01-19T19:09:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T19:09:07","slug":"death-cap-mushroom-outbreak-sickens-at-least-35-across-california","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/140398\/","title":{"rendered":"Death cap mushroom outbreak sickens at least 35 across California"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>At least 35 people across California have been poisoned by death cap mushrooms, including a toddler \u2014 and three adults have died, health officials said.<\/p>\n<p>Three adult fatalities and three emergency liver transplants had been linked to the ongoing outbreak as of January 6, the <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/01\/09\/us-news\/billions-in-healthcare-fraud-discovered-in-california-dr-oz-claims\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">California Department of Public Health<\/a> said last week.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDeath cap mushrooms contain potentially deadly toxins that can lead to liver failure,\u201d the department\u2019s director, Erica Pan, said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.49926794;display:block\" fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"38224050\" width=\"885\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/119226075.jpg\" alt=\"Three deadly poisonous death cap mushrooms, Amanita phalloides, at different growth stages, with greenish-yellow caps and white stems, growing among brown leaves and debris in a forest.\" class=\"wp-image-38224050\"  \/>Heavy rain caused a surge in death cap mushrooms across California. Timo \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBecause the death cap can easily be mistaken for edible safe mushrooms, we advise the public not to forage for <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2025\/12\/16\/health\/these-lilliputian-mushrooms-will-make-you-hallucinate-tiny-people\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">wild mushrooms<\/a> at all during this high-risk season.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Those affected range in age from just 19 months to 67 years old, officials said, updating a health advisory from December.<\/p>\n<p>Officials said recent heavy rains have triggered a surge in death cap mushrooms across the state.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"38224047\" width=\"457\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/www-cdph-ca-gov-programs-119225986.jpg\" alt=\"Health alert about dangerous Death Cap mushrooms, showing them at different stages of development.\" class=\"wp-image-38224047\" style=\"width:472px;height:auto;aspect-ratio:0.77539063;display:block\"  \/>Toxic wild mushrooms are often mistaken for edible ones. CDPH<\/p>\n<p>The CDPH warned Californians not to pick or eat wild mushrooms because the risk of deadly poisoning remains high.<\/p>\n<p>Health officials were especially concerned about amatoxins, the dangerous compound in death cap mushrooms that can damage the liver and kidneys.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2025\/12\/07\/us-news\/calif-officials-warn-against-foraging-wild-mushrooms-after-deadly-poisoning-outbreak\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Toxic wild mushrooms <\/a>are often mistaken for edible ones because of their appearance and taste. With the uptick in cases, officials are advising against mushroom foraging.<\/p>\n<p>Just 24 hours after eating a toxic mushroom, people can get stomach cramps, nausea, diarrhea, or severe vomiting.<\/p>\n<p>Even if stomach issues fade, health officials warn that serious, life-threatening complications like liver damage can show up long after the first symptoms are gone.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At least 35 people across California have been poisoned by death cap mushrooms, including a toddler \u2014 and&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":140399,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,48067,4720,3586],"class_list":["post-140398","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-mushrooms","tag-public-health","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140398","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=140398"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140398\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/140399"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=140398"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=140398"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=140398"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}