(KPL) Seven local people in Oudomxay ate poisonous natural mushroom and they died.
Medical officers from the local hospital in Oudimxay sent a sample of the mushroom to a laboratory in Vientiane for analysis.

The epidemicology office of Oudomxay province told KPL news last Friday that the seven dead middle aged men collected and ate an edible kind of mushroom from the forest.

Mr Amphone, head of epidemicology office, Oudomxay province said that in the seven cases, the victims ate the mushrooms and an hour later they suffered from severe headaches and they vomited and then they were sent to the hospital.Most of dead men live in La, Xay and Baeng districts of Oudomxay province, the areas where the people have a tradition of going to the natural forest to hunt and to gather certain types of mushrooms, which they consider to be delicacies.

This is the way of life of the locals of such places, a tendency to rely on the natural forest for their sustenance.

After their deaths the local officials went to the places where the mushroom victims picked the deadly mushrooms and they found that they are all located in the in the places where the upland rice is being planted and such places had been sprayed with herbicide.

Therefore the officials relate the deaths to herbicide and they also said that it is plausible the rainwater got mixed up with the herbicide and then it adulterated the growing mushrooms.

Because of the mushroom case, the Ministry of Public Health issued a notice that during any rainy season there is a need to be on the alert to the consumption of any food from the natural forest, such as mushrooms and wild animals.
Last year, a local official said, two locals from the Nga district died after eating mushroom and the variety consumed is known as “hedpuak.”