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www.newsindiatimes.com – that’s all you need to know Community Special Report News India Times (December 13, 2025 - December 19, 2025) December 19, 2025 7 arrived at the hospital in Statesville on a H-1B visa last year. Castañeto had a good job in her rural Philippine province but wanted a better life, and now works the overnight shift processing samples and analyzing results in a humming, sophisticated lab that patients never see. As with many current H-1B holders, the president’s September proclamation struck fear in Castañeto. She has delayed returning to the Philippines to visit family out of concern that immigration officials won’t let her back in. Meanwhile, Chelikani, the kidney doctor hired to work in Shelby, remains stuck. After graduating frommedical school in India, she arrived in the United States in 2020 on a trainee visa for a residency in Michigan and a two-year nephrology fellowship in Alabama. To stay in the country longer, Chelikani agreed to work for three years in what the federal government has deemed a “health professional shortage area.” The federal government preliminarily authorized her to stay after the Shelby practice submitted documenta- tion to show that it had contracted a recruiting service and advertised in numerous medical journals and websites but got only two U.S. applicants. One wanted to work doing transplants, which local hospitals do not offer, and another had cycled through numerous jobs, said MichaelleWaters, the practice’s office manager. Chelikani returned to India to visit family, believing she would stay for only a few months while the H-1B pa- perwork was finalized. Her shoes, clothes and furniture are still in storage in Charlotte. In Shelby, the uncertainty has cast a pall over the office – the only kidney specialists serving a region of more than 165,000 residents. The practice nearly shut down several years ago when it had only one doctor left: the owner, Muhammad Alam. Born in Bangla- desh, he arrived on a trainee visa in the mid-1990s and moved to Shelby more than a decade later. He and his wife raised three daughters here, including one who’s now a doctor in residency and another in medical school. While H-1B doctors have kept the practice operat- ing, new patients face long waits because those with severe kidney disease take priority. Many dialysis patients, often elderly, cannot easily travel to the near- est big city, Charlotte, for hours-long treatments three times a week. As the population around Shelby grows, doctors are seeing more patients – and many younger ones with health problems that contribute to kidney disease, Alam said. His office is considering obtaining a loan to cover the visa and operating expenses. “If we don’t have this practice, patients will suffer,” Alam said. -TheWashington Post Rural America Relies On Foreign Doctors. Trump’s Visa Fee Shuts Them Out PHOTO:SPUTNIK/GRIGORY SYSOEV/POOLVIA REUTERS A technician works at Nephrology Associates of the Carolinas. - Continued From Page 6 California Public Health Officials, Including Rais Vohra, Warn Against Mushroom Foraging P ublic health officials are warning Californians not to forage for wild mushrooms after an outbreak of poisonings in and around the San Francisco Bay Area that have killed one person and caused seri- ous liver damage in several others. Toxic varieties of foraged wild mushrooms, including “death cap mushrooms,” have led to at least 23 poison- ings since mid-November, according to state health officials. One adult died after eating the wild mushrooms and another underwent a liver transplant, officials said; a 19-month-old was also hospitalized but has since recovered. The mushrooms look and taste similar to edible variet- ies - they have a broad, greenish-yellow or off-white cap with a ring underneath - but contain amatoxins that can cause liver failure and lead to death, said Rais Vohra, medical director for the Fresno/Madera division of the California Poison Control System. Even after boiling, cooking or drying, ingesting even a mouthful of death cap mushrooms can be fatal. Poisonings caused by mushrooms tend to happen around this time of year, as California’s rainy weather in the fall and winter creates ideal conditions for mushroom growth, Vohra said. But he said to record 23 cases in such a short period of time is “quite historic.” “[Nearly] two dozen very sick people that had to be hospitalized and treated - that is an outlier,” he said. “We haven’t had a season this busy with mushroom poison- ings since 2016.” That winter, Bay Area Mycological Society members reported an unusually large bloom of death cap mushrooms and the California Poison Control System identified 14 related poisoning cases. Death cap mushrooms have been found across Cali- fornia, according to the Bay Area Mycological Society, often growing around oaks and, in some parts of the state, pine trees. The California Public Health Department said it “strongly discouraged” Californians from foraging mush- rooms this season, and urged caution when buying wild mushrooms from farmers markets and street vendors. “These death caps are fruiting all over, from what our mycology colleagues are telling us, and we just want people to be careful,” Vohra said. “And the best way to be careful is to not forage at all.” “I know that that can be controversial,” he added, “but I stand by that. And I think my poison control colleagues stand by that.” Bruch Reed, chief operating officer of the North American Mycological Association, agreed that death cap mushrooms can be “insidiously catastrophic,” calling the spate of poisonings “a serious public health crisis.” But he said he and some other mushroom foragers feel “sadly disappointed” by the message public health officials have put forward, and believe it should have focused more on educating about how to avoid death cap mushrooms than advising people to stop foraging. “We encourage those who wish to forage mushrooms, especially in this time of increasing, and perhaps unprec- edented, food insecurity among vast numbers of Ameri- cans, to seek out and join their local mycology club,” Reed said, “and learn directly, in the field, frommycologi- cally knowledgeable people how to identify, harvest and enjoy mushrooms safely.” Experienced mycologists, he added, are able to distin- guish death cap mushrooms from other varieties that are safe to eat. Vohra said foragers often come from diverse back- grounds, as wild mushrooms are used in traditional cuisines around the world. He said those poisoned in the recent outbreak include a family fromMexico, and it’s un- clear whether they were educated about the mushroom varieties that are safe to eat in the California area. Vohra warned the public to exercise caution when foraging in regions where they aren’t familiar. Mushroom foraging has been increasing in popularity over recent years. Reed said the coronavirus pandemic is sometimes referred to as the “shroom boom” in which many people experienced more free time and a desire to reconnect with nature - leading them to start foraging. Internet forums and social media have made mush- room foraging more accessible in recent years, too, but the increasing use of artificial intelligence tools have also added potential dangers. Some apps that use AI analyze photos or descriptions of mushrooms to identify species that users encounter in the wild, but foragers and experts warn they can be wrong and lead to fatal consequences. Reed said joining a local mushroom club is key to learning how to forage and enjoy wild mushrooms safely, adding that there are more than 100 clubs affiliated with the North American Mycological Association across the United States and Canada. “There is simply no better way to learn mushrooms than through experienced mushroomers in your local area,” he said. -TheWashington Post By Gaya Gupta