New Jersey Man's Death First One To Be Tied To Tick-Related Meat Allergy

A previously healthy New Jersey man has been identified by an allergist at the University of Virginia (UVA) and his coauthors as suffering the first documented fatality from alpha-gal syndrome, a meat allergy triggered by tick bites. The case study was published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology in Practice yesterday.

The allergy is caused by the bite of the lone star tick, which can sensitize people to alpha-gal, a sugar found in mammalian meat, including beef, lamb, and pork.

People with alpha-gal syndrome show allergic symptoms such as rash, nausea and vomiting after eating such meat. Though deadly anaphylaxis had been considered a theoretical outcome of the allergy, it had not yet been seen until this case.

Continue reading to learn more, written by Stephanie Soucheray.