Researchers record first death from allergic reaction to meat caused by tick bite

An American is believed to be the first person to die from a meat allergy triggered by a tick bite, medical researchers confirmed this week.

After months of investigation, a team of scientists determined that the 47-year-old airline pilot died from alpha-gal syndrome, an allergy to red meat and other mammal-derived products that can develop after a tick bite, according to an article by Mercury News.

Researchers at the University of Virginia School of Medicine recorded that the man had two severe reactions to eating beef in the summer of 2024, following multiple bites from lone star ticks.

In the first incident, he experienced severe diarrhoea, vomiting, and stomach pain about four hours after eating a steak during a family camping trip. Despite telling one of his sons that he felt he was “going to die,” the symptoms subsided after a few hours, so he did not seek medical attention.

Two weeks later, in September 2024, the man again felt ill about four hours after eating a hamburger at a barbecue. His son found him unconscious on the bathroom floor with vomit around him and called 911. He was rushed to a hospital but died less than three hours later.

As the article notes, the man’s death was initially seen as a mystery because there was no evidence of a heart attack or any other life-threatening condition.

The scientists, analysing postmortem blood samples, eventually linked the meat consumption to the tick bites, concluding that the man had experienced an allergic reaction—anaphylaxis—that had not been recognised as a possible cause of death during his autopsy.

The case is “notable because it is the first documented anaphylactic death related to [alpha-gal syndrome] where the symptoms started several hours after consuming mammalian meat,” the researchers wrote in The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology in November, emphasising the “major need for public education in areas where the tick is increasing.”

According to the Centres for Disease Control, there have been more than 100,000 suspected cases of alpha-gal syndrome worldwide between 2010 and 2022. Almost all U.S. cases are caused by lone star ticks, which are primarily found in the Northeast, South, and Midwest. The risk of the illness has grown as the ticks and white-tailed deer—their primary host—have expanded into new areas.

By Nazrin Sadigova