Abstract
On 15 and 16 October 2019 , Kota Marudu District Health Office received notifications of mushroom poisoning outbreak from the nearest district hospital involving 10 patients from 2 different localities and 2 different families . Based on the Malaysian Act 342 , Communicable Disease Control 1988 , food poisoning falls under the notifiable diseases to be notified within 24 hours to the nearest District Health Office. Upon receiving the notification , the Rapid Assessement Team responded and proceeded with investigations and outbreak control measures. Based on previous records , the last recorded outbreak of mushroom poisoning in Kota Marudu was in 2016 involving 3 cases.
The investigation was conducted through interviewing the cases and reviewing medical records in Hospital Kota Marudu . The first family which was notified on 15 October 2019 was from Koromoko Village, Kota Marudu and the second family which was notified on 16 October 2019 was from Minansad Village , Kota Marudu. Both these families collected the wild mushrooms from the forest nearby their house , mistakening them to be edible mushrooms , undercooked them and ingested them . The age group of the cases from Koromoko Village are within 4 to 21 years old whereas those from Minansad Village is within the age of 4 to 67 years old. They developed signs and symptoms of food poisoning within 2-3 hours of ingestion and presented to the hospital with symptoms of neurological and gastro- intestinal disturbances. The attack rate was 100%. 4 of them were admitted in Hospital Kota Marudu for observation and discharged the following day , whereas 5 of them in the peadiatric age group were referred to tertiary hospital for observation and discharged after 2 days. Only one elderly gentleman , 67 years old was admitted for 9 days in tertiary hospital for further management. All of them were treated symptomatically and no fatality recorded. Samples of the mushrooms were collected and sent to the Mycology Lab in University Malaysia Sabah for analysis.
Based on the analysis report , the two mushroom species which caused the poisoning were Entoloma mastoideum (samples collected from Koromoko Village) and Amanita princeps (samples collected from Minansad Village) . These 2 poisonous mushrooms are found in the wild after a rainy season , can be mistaken as edible mushrooms and the mycotoxin are known to cause muscarinic effects upon ingestion.
Upon receiving the notifications , the Rapid Response Team proceeded with the outbreak control measures which includes health education and health promotion to villagers and the nearby villagers as well. An outbreak review meeting at the district level was done to educate and disseminate the information on mushroom poisoning to all the people of Kota Marudu through the village heads and also the mushroom handlers.
In Malaysia, mushroom poisoning still poses a major public health concern especially in Sabah. Continuous health education to public about the potential dangers of ingesting poisonous mushrooms as well as maintaining a good personal and environmental health is needed to prevent any food poisoning outbreak in future.
Links
- https://apcph.cphm.my/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/APCPH2022-O-1.pdf
- https://apcph.cphm.my/events/oral-session-9-ballroom-C/
BibTeX (Download)
@proceedings{APCPH2022-O-1,
title = {A Case Study on the Mushroom Poisoning Outbreak in Kota Marudu , Sabah in 2019},
author = {Gowri Mutthumanickam and Abdul Marsudi Manah and Muhammad Jikal and Jaya Seelan Sathiya Seelan},
url = {https://apcph.cphm.my/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/APCPH2022-O-1.pdf
https://apcph.cphm.my/events/oral-session-9-ballroom-C/},
year = {2022},
date = {2022-08-01},
urldate = {2022-08-02},
issue = {7},
abstract = {On 15 and 16 October 2019 , Kota Marudu District Health Office received notifications of mushroom poisoning outbreak from the nearest district hospital involving 10 patients from 2 different localities and 2 different families . Based on the Malaysian Act 342 , Communicable Disease Control 1988 , food poisoning falls under the notifiable diseases to be notified within 24 hours to the nearest District Health Office. Upon receiving the notification , the Rapid Assessement Team responded and proceeded with investigations and outbreak control measures. Based on previous records , the last recorded outbreak of mushroom poisoning in Kota Marudu was in 2016 involving 3 cases.
The investigation was conducted through interviewing the cases and reviewing medical records in Hospital Kota Marudu . The first family which was notified on 15 October 2019 was from Koromoko Village, Kota Marudu and the second family which was notified on 16 October 2019 was from Minansad Village , Kota Marudu. Both these families collected the wild mushrooms from the forest nearby their house , mistakening them to be edible mushrooms , undercooked them and ingested them . The age group of the cases from Koromoko Village are within 4 to 21 years old whereas those from Minansad Village is within the age of 4 to 67 years old. They developed signs and symptoms of food poisoning within 2-3 hours of ingestion and presented to the hospital with symptoms of neurological and gastro- intestinal disturbances. The attack rate was 100%. 4 of them were admitted in Hospital Kota Marudu for observation and discharged the following day , whereas 5 of them in the peadiatric age group were referred to tertiary hospital for observation and discharged after 2 days. Only one elderly gentleman , 67 years old was admitted for 9 days in tertiary hospital for further management. All of them were treated symptomatically and no fatality recorded. Samples of the mushrooms were collected and sent to the Mycology Lab in University Malaysia Sabah for analysis.
Based on the analysis report , the two mushroom species which caused the poisoning were Entoloma mastoideum (samples collected from Koromoko Village) and Amanita princeps (samples collected from Minansad Village) . These 2 poisonous mushrooms are found in the wild after a rainy season , can be mistaken as edible mushrooms and the mycotoxin are known to cause muscarinic effects upon ingestion.
Upon receiving the notifications , the Rapid Response Team proceeded with the outbreak control measures which includes health education and health promotion to villagers and the nearby villagers as well. An outbreak review meeting at the district level was done to educate and disseminate the information on mushroom poisoning to all the people of Kota Marudu through the village heads and also the mushroom handlers.
In Malaysia, mushroom poisoning still poses a major public health concern especially in Sabah. Continuous health education to public about the potential dangers of ingesting poisonous mushrooms as well as maintaining a good personal and environmental health is needed to prevent any food poisoning outbreak in future.},
howpublished = {published online at https://apcph.cphm.my},
note = {Type: ORAL PRESENTATION; Organisation: Pejabat Kesihatan Daerah Kota Marudu; Pejabat Kesihatan Kawasan Kudat; Jabatan Kesihatan Negeri Sabah; Institut Biologi Tropika dan Pemulihan , Universiti Malaysia Sabah},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {proceedings}
}