In the summer of 2024, a healthy 47-year-old father unexpectedly died in his bathroom in New Jersey. Despite an autopsy, doctors couldn’t determine the cause. His widow reached out to a friend, Dr. Erin McFeely, a pediatrician, who suggested consulting Dr. Thomas Platts-Mills, an allergist at the University of Virginia. Years earlier, Platts-Mills had uncovered that tick bites could lead to an allergy to red meat.
This allergy is peculiar because symptoms don’t appear immediately. Instead, people may feel sick hours after eating beef, pork, or lamb. Many wake up in the night, experiencing symptoms that seem like food poisoning rather than an allergic reaction.
Experts believe there may be many undiagnosed cases of this condition. Recent findings suggest that potentially hundreds of thousands of Americans could be unknowingly sensitized to these allergens due to tick bites. In fact, Dr. Platts-Mills suspects that up to 5% of the population might have some level of sensitization.
The man’s ordeal began on a camping trip where he encountered tiny lone star ticks, leading him to become sensitized to red meat. The population of these ticks has surged in the eastern U.S. alongside growing deer populations, their primary hosts. Experts warn that a combination of more ticks and deer could result in many people unknowingly at risk of severe allergic reactions.
The case was reported in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology in Practice. Dr. Platts-Mills suggested that unexplained deaths might be linked to severe reactions from this sugar found in red meat, known as alpha-gal.
In a tragic turn, two weeks after the camping trip, the father ate a hamburger at a family cookout, only to be found unconscious later that evening. His death marked the first known fatality attributed to this rare allergy.
In 2023, a CDC survey revealed concerning knowledge gaps among healthcare providers, with over 40% unaware of alpha-gal syndrome. This lack of awareness can prevent timely diagnosis and treatment, potentially putting more individuals at risk.
In the lab, after analyzing postmortem blood samples, Dr. Platts-Mills discovered alarming levels of tryptase—a marker for allergic reactions. The presence of alpha-gal antibodies confirmed that the man indeed died from an allergic reaction to red meat.
While other cases of alpha-gal reactions have resulted in fatalities, this incident stands out as the first linked to food allergies. The ongoing research and discussion surrounding alpha-gal syndrome reveal a pressing need for awareness in both the public and among healthcare professionals.
For additional insights, you can read more from the CDC on emerging tick bites here.
