On July 25, the Yunnan Provincial Health Commission issued a message: From May to July 20, 2020, there have been 273 wild mushroom poisoning incidents in Yunnan Province. , 12 people died. Compared with the same period last year, the number of cases of poisoning dropped by 33.90%, the number of cases dropped by 35.64%, and the number of deaths dropped by 17 people. A total of more than 2,000 poisoned patients have been successfully treated.
According to the real-time big data report of the epidemic, as of August 1, 2020, the cumulative number of deaths due to the new crown virus pneumonia in Yunnan Province was 2, which is far lower than the number of deaths from fungal poisoning in the first half of 2020.
This shows that it is true that the number of people poisoned by eating wild mushrooms in Yunnan is higher than the number of deaths from the new coronavirus. A Yunnan netizen said, “My mother calmly told me that almost every year there are poisoning deaths from eating poisonous wild mushrooms. This happens every year, sometimes the hospital is full.”
Especially every summer, it is the peak season of wild mushrooms poisoning in Yunnan. Rains are abundant, coupled with Yunnan’s complex topography and geomorphic climate, various wild mushrooms grow “crazy and wanton”. Yunnan people call summer the ” mushrooms eating season”.
In order to prevent people from accidentally eating poisonous mushrooms, the Yunnan Provincial Health Commission has implemented a series of prevention and control measures. Including several video and telephone conferences, emphasizing the severe situation of wild fungus poisoning prevention and control, and requesting all regions to improve the epidemiological investigation capacity of food safety accidents; issuing early warning notices for preventing wild fungus poisoning, printing hundreds of thousands of publicity materials. The film was sent to the provincial food poisoning prevention and control member units and the prefectures, counties, townships, and villages, and broadcasted in crowded squares and TV stations; sent early warning messages of wild bacteria poisoning to more than 40 million mobile phone users in the province. The knowledge of wild mushroom poisoning prevention and control covers the whole population.
Early warning announcement on the prevention of wild mushrooms poisoning issued by the official website of the Yunnan Provincial Health Commission.
However, even so, every year there will be cases of rushing to the hospital for emergency treatment of poisonous mushrooms. Some netizens once said that after some mushrooms were eaten, they “float like a drug, they can’t help but want to eat them knowing that they have toxins, even if they accidentally overdose and are sent to the hospital for emergency treatment.”
In this regard, Guo Feng, deputy director of the Department of Critical Care Medicine at the Shao Yifu Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, said that currently there is no specific medicine for mushroom poisoning. Therefore, when encountering such patients, gastric lavage and catharsis are mainly performed.
The most effective way to prevent wild mushroom poisoning is not to pick, buy, or eat wild mushrooms.
The official WeChat account of the Yunnan Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention also issued a reminder:
- Don’t collect and eat unfamiliar mushrooms.
- Regardless of the type of mushrooms, do not eat it cold, it must be fried and cooked thoroughly; do not drink alcohol when eating mushrooms.
- If you have any discomfort after eating the mushrooms, such as nausea, dizziness, vomiting, unclear vision, or visual hallucinations, hearing hallucinations, and other symptoms, you should go to a regular medical institution for treatment immediately.
