Mushrooms led to ‘whiplash-like eruptions’

A 53-year-old woman has been left counting the cost of eating shiitake mushrooms at an Asian restaurant here.

This follows medics at University College Hospital Galway reporting the first case of shiitake mushroom- induced flagellate dermatitis in Ireland. The woman presented to the hospital’s dermatology outpatient clinic with itchy skin widespread and long red rashes across her back and legs.

Medics carried out routine tests and they all tested normal and didn’t provide any clue to the baffled doctors as to how the rash got there.