2 October 2013
The Centre for Health Protection (CHP) of the Department of Health today (October 2) urged the public not to collect and eat wild mushrooms from parks or the countryside.
The call followed a report of suspected imported food poisoning involving a 40-year-old woman who had eaten wild mushrooms picked from a mountain in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region (Ningxia) on September 29.
Investigations by the CHP revealed that the patient developed nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea about 24 hours after eating the wild mushrooms at her home in Ningxia on September 29. She travelled to Hong Kong on September 30 and attended the Accident and Emergency Department of Queen Elizabeth Hospital the next day. She was admitted and subsequently transferred to the Intensive Care Unit. She is now in a stable condition.
A CHP spokesman advised people not to pick wild mushrooms for consumption as it is difficult to distinguish edible mushroom species from inedible ones.
"Mushroom toxin poisonings are generally acute. The main treatment for this kind of poisoning is only supportive treatment," the spokesman said.