Researchers say they believe they’ve documented the first known death from alpha-gal syndrome — a red meat allergy caused by tick bites.
The findings, by researchers at the University of Virginia School of Medicine, published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. The report says a 47-year-old airplane pilot in New Jersey fell ill four hours after eating a hamburger at a barbecue in 2024. The man’s son found him unconscious on the floor of a bathroom surrounded by vomit. The man was declared dead at a hospital. The autopsy cited a “sudden unexplained death.”
Two weeks before he died, the man had become ill several hours after eating a steak dinner, waking up with abdominal discomfort, writhing in pain, having diarrhea and vomiting. “I thought I was going to die,” he told his son. But the man and his wife decided not to consult a doctor, saying they weren’t sure how to explain what had happened.
A blood sample collected after the man’s death showed he had an allergic reaction. His wife said that earlier that summer, he had 12 or 13 “chigger,” or tiny mite larvae, bites around his ankles that left itchy, small bumps. But scientists believe those bites were actually from larvae of lone star ticks, which can cause alpha-gal syndrome.
Bro I fucking hope it was just tick larva spreading it…
If it jumped species to chiggers it’s going to spread insanely fast. They’re unavoidable in large parts of America.
Hold onto your butts! The floor is about to drop out under beef prices.
I barely go to our camp in the swamp from late spring until October. Last year I sprayed lightly, made certain not to touch any plants, still got half a dozen bites. It’s not safe until it hits 45F or lower.
Weirdest thing is, I’ve never got a bite anywhere else in NW Florida. I get into some crazy shit along the rivers and creeks, hiking swamps and around lakes, all that. They’re only at camp.
Poor bastard. That’s a really unpleasant death.
The article’s a little weak on the actual cause. Wikipedia has a somewhat clearer explanation:
If a tick feeds on another mammal, the alpha-gal remains in its alimentary tract. The tick injects the alpha-gal into a person’s skin with its bite. Researchers still do not know which specific component of tick saliva causes the reaction. The immune system then releases a flood of IgE antibodies to fight this foreign sugar. After this reaction, the future intake of mammalian meat with the same alpha-gal causes an allergic reaction.
