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Researchers have reported that they believe this is the first documented death from meat allergy that may have been caused by a tick bite.
a 47 year old man new Jersey The man died last year from alpha-gal syndrome, which was first linked to the bite of the Lone Star tick in 2011.
According to an estimate, more than 100,000 people in the US have become allergic to red meat since 2010 due to the syndrome.
Federal health officials did not immediately respond to questions about the case, but some outside experts said it appeared to be the first documented case of someone suffering a fatal alpha-gal reaction shortly after eating meat.
It’s possible other deaths may have occurred, but they were thought to be from other causes and not fully investigated, as was done in this case, said tick biologist Joshua Benoit. University of Cincinnati,
Dr. Scott Cummins, a leading researcher on alpha-gal syndrome University of North CarolinaCalled the death an “unmitigated tragedy”.
“Completely unnecessary and with increased awareness, this will never happen again,” he said in an email.
The case report was published this week in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. The lead author was Dr. Thomas Platts-Mills of the University of Virginia, who led the 2011 paper that first linked Lone Star tick bites to meat allergy.
People Those with alpha-gal syndrome may experience symptoms including hives, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, severe stomach pain, difficulty breathing, dizziness, and swelling of the lips, throat, tongue, or eyelids. Unlike some other food allergies, which occur immediately after eating, these reactions usually occur hours later.
The new report tells of a healthy airline pilot who went on a camping trip with his wife and children in the summer of 2024. They had steak for late dinner. This was unusual – the man rarely ate meat.
He woke up at 2 am with severe stomach pain, diarrhea and vomiting. He gradually began to feel better, went back to sleep, and the next morning he felt well enough to have breakfast and walk 5 miles.
Two weeks later, back home in New Jersey, he went to a barbecue, where he ate a hamburger. About four hours later, he became ill. Shortly thereafter, his son found him unconscious on the bathroom floor. The son called paramedics, but the man was pronounced dead at the hospital that night.
Researchers said blood tests showed evidence of alpha-gal syndrome. Evidence that it came from the Lone Star tick is incomplete. The authors made this link based on a statement from the man’s wife, who said she had been bitten by “chiggers” 12 or 13 times around her ankles in the early summer.
But the findings make sense, because people in the eastern US sometimes mistake bites from moths to be bites from larval ticks, Cummins said.
The number of cases of alpha-gal syndrome is increasing for several reasons, including the increasing range of the Lone Star tick, more people being exposed to ticks, and more doctors learning about it and ordering tests for it.
It may take several weeks or longer for infected people to develop the syndrome, which is named for the alpha-gal carbohydrate found in the tick’s saliva. Initial reactions to red meat may be mild but gradually become more severe, Benoit said.
Some patients have only abdominal symptoms, and the American Gastroenterological Association advises that people with unexplained diarrhea, nausea, and abdominal pain should be tested for the syndrome.
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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. AP is solely responsible for all content.