Per the CP News Wire in Moscow, Chief state epidemiologist Gennady Onishchenko was cited as telling a news conference Tuesday that at least 17 people have died in Russia from eating poisonous mushrooms so far this year, fewer than during similar periods over the previous four years, and that authorities have recorded 179 cases of people falling ill from eating mushrooms this year, including 21 children,. At least four of the dead were children.