Four die, one hospitalized after eating toxic mushrooms

04 July 2014 – Four family members died last week and one has been taken to hospital after eating poisonous mushrooms in Tuivial village, Tedim Township, Chin State last Monday.

A 61-year-old father and his three sons aged 18, 20, and 28 succumbed to the effects of the mushrooms last Friday while his daughter, 11, has been treated at the Wesley Hospital in Kalaymyo.

A Tuivial resident was quoted as saying that their father and the youngest son had passed away in the village, adding: “The other sons died on the way while they were being taken to the Tedim General Hospital as they didn’t get better.”

Sources said that the village has a Sub-Rural Health Centre with only one midwife, who had treated the victims.

A group of medical staff members led by the Regional Surveillance Officer travelled from Hakha to the village and carried out an investigation, according to a source from the Chin State Health Department.

The department said that a sample of the poisonous mushrooms had been sent to the National Health Laboratory in Rangoon, former capital of Burma.

In the same month two years ago, three children died after eating poisonous mushrooms in Hakha Township.#