Hearty breakfast sent man into shock after tick bite triggered meat allergy, he says
Chris Aycock said he had “two patties of pork sausage and four slices of bacon” for breakfast at a Tennessee diner — and hours later came a severe, surprising allergic reaction, WATE reports.
“I had no idea what it was,” Aycock said, describing how an annoying itch and a throat tickle that day in December turned into a feeling that he “was going to pass out,” prompting his wife to call 911, according to the TV station.
First responders used an EpiPen on Aycock to treat his anaphylactic shock, and he was hospitalized and diagnosed with alpha-gal syndrome — an allergy to red meat that was caused by a tick bite months earlier, the TV station reported.
The Lone Star Tick, whose bite can cause the syndrome, is mostly found in the Southeast United States, but its range extends from Texas up to Iowa, and all the way to New England, according to the American College of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology. Eating beef, pork and other red meat causes an allergic reaction in those suffering from the syndrome.
“We’re confident the number is over 5,000 [cases], and that’s in the U.S. alone,” said Dr. Scott Commins, an allergist at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill who was one of the first to identify the allergy, NPR reported last year.
Commins said the tick’s range is only expanding, NPR reports.
The population of Lone Star ticks has grown since 2006, the American College of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology said in a 2018 news release.
The allergic reaction in those with the syndrome is an immune response to the alpha-gal molecule found in most mammal meat, but not in primates — humans included, Gizmodo reports. Bites from Lone Star ticks trigger a new sensitivity to that molecule in the ticks’ victims, according to Gizmodo.
“Usually those with alpha-gal react hours after eating the food and that’s different from other food allergies,” Dr. Keegan Smith of Heritage Medical Associates, who diagnosed Aycock, told WATE. “Plenty of people have this.”
Commins said about 15 to 20 percent of people with the tick-borne syndrome can’t consume dairy products, either, NPR reports.
The syndrome can’t be cured, but it can clear up with time, WATE reported.
So what should meat-lovers know about the tick to avoid bites?
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the risk of getting bitten is highest in the early spring to the late fall. The CDC describes the Lone Star tick as “a very aggressive tick that bites humans,” adding that the “adult female is distinguished by a white dot or ‘lone star’ on her back.”
