Eight people in Japan have died after reportedly eating the mushroom known as "angel's wing" and developing an acute brain disease.
An elderly woman died Sunday after being hospitalized with the brain disease. A total of 19 people have suffered the disease in Niigata, Yamagata and Akita prefectures, all northeast of Tokyo, after eating the mushroom officially called the Pleurocybella porrigens.
In these prefectures and elsewhere, people have long consumed this type of mushroom without any major reactions until the recent series of incidents.
According to medical reports, those who died from similar symptoms after eating the mushrooms are believed to have also had kidney ailments.
The elderly woman was hospitalized in early October for the brain disease. She also suffered a kidney ailment and had eaten an angel's wing before being hospitalized, the Mainichi Shimbun reported.
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