For years, especially during the rainy season, villagers of all ages in southwestern China suddenly die of cardiac arrest.
This Sudden Death Syndrome which has claimed the lives of 400 has most likely been identified.
It's an innocuous-looking small mushroom known as Little White.
The investigation began in 2005 and Robert Fontaine, (above photo) an epidemiologist with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention zeroed in on mushrooms, because the deaths were closely aligned with the harvesting season.
More than 90 percent of the deaths occurred in July or August.
Yunnan province is legendary for its wide variety of wild mushrooms, many of which are exported at high prices.
Entire families go out to hunt for them during the summer months.
The hunt of the Little White has proven to be deadly.
