A 47-year-old New Jersey man is the first person known to have died of a meat allergy caused by the bite of a tick, according to a published report in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology: In Practice.”<\/p>\n
That tick, the lone star tick, has been confirmed by researchers to be one of five tick species present on Staten Island.<\/a><\/p>\n The man, an airline pilot, reportedly died of alpha-gal syndrome \u2014 a red meat allergy caused by the bite of a lone star tick \u2014 after eating a hamburger. The lone star tick is present on Staten Island and lays eggs in large numbers, according to experts.<\/p>\n \u201cUnfortunately, on Staten Island, you have the five ticks that we consider to be a human health risk,\u2019’ Joellen Lampman, a school and turfgrass extension support specialist with the New York State Integrated Pest Management program, recently told SILive.com. The lone star tick is one of them \u2014 and it lays between 8,000 and 20,000 eggs a season and can be found in high numbers in the borough, Lampman said.<\/p>\n Researchers at the University of Virginia School of Medicine publicly reported the man\u2019s cause of death Wednesday after months of investigation. Their findings were published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology: In Practice<\/a>.<\/p>\n The man\u2019s death was initially a mystery, since medical examinations did not show evidence of a heart attack or other life-threatening issues, according to the report.<\/p>\n According to the researchers, the man started feeling sick four hours after eating a hamburger at a barbecue in September 2024. After mowing the lawn and reading the paper, he was found by his son hours later, unconscious on the bathroom floor and surrounded by vomit. An autopsy ruled that his death was sudden and unexplained.<\/p>\n Two weeks earlier, the man had become ill after eating a steak dinner on a camping trip with his wife and children. <\/p>\n \u201cThe tragedy is that they didn\u2019t think of that episode as anaphylaxis, and therefore didn\u2019t connect it to the beef at the time,\u201d Dr. Thomas Platts-Mills, an allergist at the University of Virginia School of Medicine who discovered alpha-gal syndrome and diagnosed the New Jersey man\u2019s case, told NBC News.<\/p>\n Platts-Mills said he first learned of the man\u2019s death in February from Dr. Erin McFeely, a New Jersey-based pediatrician and co-author of the new paper. McFeely and the New Jersey pilot had daughters in the same ballet class, he told the news outlet.<\/p>\n \u201cErin McFeely and the wife discussed what had happened,\u201d Platts-Mills told NBC. \u201cThe two of them, talking, put it together and said, \u2018Could this be that red meat thing?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Once he was connected with the man\u2019s wife, Platts-Mills arranged for blood testing. A blood sample in April indicated that the man had experienced an allergic reaction, which didn\u2019t show up on his autopsy.<\/p>\n \u201cThe level he had is basically only seen in fatal cases of anaphylaxis,\u201d Platts-Mills said. \u201cHis level was 2,000. The highest level I\u2019ve seen in practice of a person who survived is 100.\u201d<\/p>\n Blood testing also revealed antibodies to a sugar called alpha-gal \u2014 which indicates a tickborne meat allergy, according to the medical report. Alpha-gal is found in the blood of cows, pigs, goats and deer. When ticks feed on these mammals, the sugar gets into their saliva and can be transmitted to humans through bites.<\/p>\n Most cases of the tick-borne meat allergy in the United States are linked to the lone star tick, scientists say. <\/p>\n Dr. Scott Commins, an allergy immunology specialist at the University of North Carolina Department of Medicine in Chapel Hill, told NBC News that the biggest risk factors for severe reactions are exercise and alcohol, which can increase the absorption of food allergens. The New Jersey pilot exercised and consumed a beer on the day of his death, according to the researchers.<\/p>\n \u201cFood allergy deaths are really rare, and they usually happen in people that have underlying asthma or some other kind of medical condition. So it takes a perfect storm,\u201d Commins told the news outlet.<\/p>\n The timing of a tick bite may matter, and a fresh bite is more of a risk, the outlet reported. <\/p>\n In the paper, the researchers wrote that alpha-gal syndrome has become a mounting threat as the lone star tick and its primary host \u2014 white-tailed deer \u2014 have migrated to new locations. That includes New York City.<\/p>\n Given the variety of tick species living in the borough, it\u2019s no surprise the risk is greater and caution is urged by doctors,<\/a> environmentalists and entomologists alike. <\/p>\n Nearly two-thirds of Americans have seen or removed a tick from themselves, someone else or a pet, according to research by the non-profit National Pest Management Association. And many have no idea they\u2019ve been bitten. <\/p>\n If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement<\/a> and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and\/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A 47-year-old New Jersey man is the first person known to have died of a meat allergy caused…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":40736,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[9,24,63,134,136,135],"class_list":["post-40735","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-staten-island","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-staten-island","tag-staten-island-headlines","tag-staten-island-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40735","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40735"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40735\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}