Ten more people have been diagnosed with acute brain disorder in Akita Prefecture, and two have died, the prefectural government said Monday, possibly the result of eating a type of edible wild mushroom.
The deaths of a woman in her 70s and a man in his 60s brought to four the number of people in Akita who have died from the acute brain disorder since mid-September, and to 10 the total number of deaths in Akita, Yamagata and Niigata prefectures.
The acute brain disorder is a temporary impairment of brain tissue.
Another woman in her 70s in Fukushima Prefecture has been diagnosed with the disorder after eating "sugihiratake," the Fukushima Prefectural Government said.
The Fukushima woman became ill Sept. 27 after eating the mushroom, which had been picked by her family on a mountain earlier in the month.
The woman's condition was improving, but she remains hospitalized, the prefectural government said.
Eight of the 10 people in Akita, including the two who recently died, had eaten sugihiratake. The same eight -- plus another person -- also have had kidney problems, the prefectural government said.
The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry last week asked prefectural governments nationwide to issue warnings for people with kidney problems not to consume the mushrooms, which have the Latin name of Pleurocybella porrigens and are called Angel's Wings in English.
Since late September, more than 10 people with kidney problems in their 50s to 90s in Yamagata and Niigata suffered from the acute brain disorder after eating the mushrooms, the two prefectural governments reported.
Before the two people in Akita died late last month, they showed symptoms, such as convulsions, associated with the mushroom-linked disorder.