{"id":158,"date":"2026-05-14T19:02:16","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T19:02:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sanfranciscomovingguide.com\/?p=158"},"modified":"2026-05-14T19:02:16","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T19:02:16","slug":"californias-deadly-mushroom-outbreak-reaches-alarming-new-levels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sanfranciscomovingguide.com\/?p=158","title":{"rendered":"California&#8217;s deadly mushroom outbreak reaches alarming new levels"},"content":{"rendered":"<article>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\n<p>Bay Area health officials are warning the public of an\u00a0unusual surge in mushroom poisonings across the region and state, including the latest cases in Napa County.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/sanfranciscomovingguide.com\/?p=156\">Bay Area dad facing 3 years in prison after prank gone wrong<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"x1px y1px vh abs\" height=\"1\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn-channels-pixel.ex.co\/events\/0012000001fxZm9AAE?integrationType=DEFAULT&amp;template=design%2Farticle%2Fplatypus_two_column.tpl\" width=\"1\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<p>Over the weekend, three adults were hospitalized after eating wild mushrooms they collected in the rural area of Deer Park, the county\u2019s Health and Human Services Agency said in a Tuesday news release. The three people were not Napa County residents and were foraging mushrooms specifically between Deer Park Road, Fawn Road and\u00a0Silverado Trail.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\n<p>The agency said the poisonings are part of an \u201cunprecedented outbreak\u201d of mushroom-related illnesses and deaths across California.\u00a0According to the California Department of Public Health, there have been 47 cases, including four deaths, since Nov. 18, 2025. Of these cases, hospitalizations occurred in six Bay Area counties: Alameda, Contra Costa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara and Sonoma.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>When health officials first noticed the\u00a0uptick in November, they began tracking the cases and trying to understand the outbreak, Craig Smollin, medical director of the San Francisco Division of the California Poison Control System, told SFGATE. Smollin, who is also an emergency medicine professor at UC San Francisco, said California typically sees about five cases a year on average, making the current spike especially puzzling.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>\u201cThese cases are a continuation of a mushroom poisoning outbreak that began in November and is continuing for longer than usual. It is also unusually large and widespread,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>Health officials said recent rains have boosted wild mushroom growth and could be one of the main factors driving the outbreak, including the most recent poisoning in Napa.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s possible that allowed for another crop of these mushrooms to come up. It\u2019s not unheard of that these mushrooms can grow year-round, not just during the rainy season,\u201d Smollin said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>Still, he noted that the current volume of cases has soared far beyond the levels health officials typically see in a standard year.\u00a0People have been eating the death cap and Western destroying angel mushrooms, according to\u00a0CDPH.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>Alan Rockefeller, an El Cerrito mycologist, told SFGATE that at one point, death cap mushrooms were the most common species in some parts of the Bay Area wilderness during the wet winter months.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>\u201cIn the middle of December, just walking through the woods, you would see 10,000 death caps, and they were the most common mushroom out.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\n<p>Both death caps and destroying angels can closely resemble safe wild varieties and even mushrooms sold in grocery stores, causing people to potentially misidentify them, experts said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>\u201cThey\u2019re going to be growing in places that potentially have other mushrooms that are edible, growing in the same area, and they look very much like those other mushrooms. And they can look so different at different stages,\u201d\u00a0Smollin said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>The mushrooms in this outbreak have a group of toxins called amatoxins, he said, which can cause severe damage to the liver or even death in the most serious cases. Symptoms of mushroom poisoning may not appear until 6 to 24 hours after a person eats them, and in moderate cases, it can cause nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and cramping.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/sanfranciscomovingguide.com\/?p=154\">Calif. family sues OpenAI for allegedly causing teen\u2019s fatal overdose<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>\u201cWhen you go into the wild and decide to forage, you\u2019re taking a risk. And unless you have really a lot of experience, the risk is that you could pick a mushroom that could change your life forever,\u201d Smollin said. \u201cEnding up with a liver transplant is a life-changing event. Medications for the rest of your life, you have gone through a huge surgery, it\u2019s a big deal.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\n<p>Experts also found that many of those poisoned were international visitors, a factor that may contribute to confusion when identifying mushrooms in California.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s not uncommon for people who have foraged in other parts of the world successfully to come to a new place where there\u2019s different types of mushrooms around it or something that looks like something that was edible before but really isn\u2019t,\u201d Smollin said. \u201c\u2026 I don\u2019t know why that would be more prevalent this year than other years, but it does seem like those communities are particularly at risk.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>Similarly, Rockefeller said he\u2019s unsure what\u2019s driving the dramatic spike in poisonings but suspects more people are eating wild mushrooms without properly identifying them first.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>There are several apps, such as\u00a0iNaturalist, that foragers can use to identify mushrooms, and Rockefeller believes that they are reliable for guidance if the photo is clear enough.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t think the apps are causing poisonings, although if people did blindly follow what the apps say, [it] could cause poisonings,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>Mushroom foraging has been steadily trending upward the past 20 years, according to Rockefeller, but it really started to pick up in the region around 2016.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>\u201cPeople are wanting to be more connected with nature, especially with all of the computers these days,\u201d he said. \u201c&#8230; I think a lot of people feel that people just kind of want more connection to the land.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\n<p>The best way to avoid poisoning, state health officials say, is to avoid eating wild mushrooms altogether.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>\u201cIn this time, with so many of these deadly mushrooms out there, we would suggest not foraging,\u201d Smollin said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>More News<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>\u2014 Coca-Cola to shut down California plant after 114 years<br \/>\u2014 Two bodies found in underground vault in downtown Fresno<br \/>\u2014 &#8216;Very contagious&#8217; parvovirus found throughout Northern Calif.<br \/>\u2014 3 straight polls show once-flailing Democrat now front-runner<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/sanfranciscomovingguide.com\/?p=152\">2 women allegedly fight, bear spray used inside Bay Area Safeway<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p><em>Sign up for\u00a0daily SFGATE breaking news alerts here.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Three people were hospitalized in Napa County over the weekend after eating mushrooms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":157,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-158","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - 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