Poisoned by mushrooms in Sassari and Alghero: two men in hospital

Two men were hospitalized in the Sassari area for consuming inedible mushrooms.

One, a 65-year-old from Alghero, had collected them in the countryside, and in addition to having cooked them and given the scraps to the house cats, he had also given them as gifts to his neighbors and brother.

The 65-year-old, after a few hours, began to feel unwell with vomiting and nausea - as do felines - and went to the Civil hospital. The health workers, with the advice of the mycologists of the Sassari health authority, kept him for 4 days for observation.

Once the protocol was activated, the neighbors and brother were reached who, fortunately, had not yet eaten the mushrooms, of the Entoloma sinuatum type.

«We all have "expert" mushroom pickers at home or in the neighborhood, but even if they are a welcome gift, we invite the population to always pay attention, in this case we managed to intervene before consuming them but we are not always so lucky» he comments Pietro Murgia, the head of the Mycological Inspectorate of the ASL of Sassari.

The second episode concerned a 41-year-old from Sassari who ended up in Santissima Annunziata for having consumed a plate of Macrolepiota rhacodes, mistaken for a toxic but "drum mallet", which forced the man to spend 48 hours in hospital.

The Sassari Local Health Authority takes this opportunity to invite consumers of wild mushrooms to always contact the company's mycologist before consuming them. «The health authority firmly believes in the service offered by the mycological inspectorate and intends to invest resources and means in the future to improve the activity, for the benefit of our population. For this reason we invite everyone, more or less expert, to contact our mycologists, free of charge, so as to avoid unpleasant episodes", declares the General Director of the ASL of Sassari, Flavio Sensi.

In addition to determining the species collected, the expert mycologist provides important advice on the consumption of the mushroom: it is underlined, in fact, that they should always be consumed in small quantities and avoiding consumption in several consecutive meals, due to the poor digestibility of some substances that contain them. make up. Furthermore, for consumption, adequate cooking is recommended and depending on the species, some must be subjected to a pre-boiling treatment, others to prolonged cooking, others require the removal of the stem or cuticle.

(Unioneonline/ss)