Five years ago, a few hours after a family dinner at a restaurant, Jeremy found it difficult to breathe. He started vomiting, so his parents called an ambulance.
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At the hospital, doctors suspected a possible meat allergy, but the attack was eventually linked to asthma, which the boy had suffered from since childhood. He was discharged home the next day.
Jeremy’s mother, Myfanwy Webb, now regrets not having asked for more tests at the time. If anaphylaxis had been diagnosed, her son could have been prescribed an adrenaline auto-injector.
A little over a year later, Jeremy went camping with friends on a beach north of Sydney. After eating a beef sausage, he died.
Initially, the cause of death was identified as asthma. However, after the family demanded a more thorough investigation, the coroner announced in February of this year that fatal anaphylaxis and a severe asthma attack were caused by an allergy to mammalian meat that developed after a tick bite.
According to the BBC, this is the first officially confirmed death in the world attributed to alpha-gal syndrome.
He felt unwell not only after eating meat
Jeremy’s family had long suspected he was intolerant to meat, but the allergy was never officially diagnosed. Relatives also did not know that the reaction could be fatal.
From about the age of ten, the boy would feel nauseous after eating meat. According to his mother, sometimes even the fumes from cooking meat could trigger a reaction.
Once, Jeremy was hospitalized after eating marshmallows. They often contain gelatin made from animal products.
Allergy symptoms can vary widely – skin rash, swelling, abdominal cramps, nausea, vomiting, difficulty breathing, and anaphylaxis.
Allergy may not appear immediately
The link between tick bites and mammalian meat allergy was established almost two decades ago by Australian professor Sheryl van Nunen.
Tick saliva can contain alpha-gal – a sugar molecule also found in mammalian bodies. After a tick bite, some people’s immune systems start producing antibodies sensitive to this molecule. Later, consuming beef, pork, lamb, or other mammalian products can trigger an allergic reaction.
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Alpha-gal syndrome is not easy to diagnose because symptoms usually do not appear immediately, but only after a few hours. A person may feel unwell already at night, making it difficult to link the reaction to previously eaten food.
The professor calls this condition an allergy that can occur “anytime, but not every time.”
One day a person might eat meat and feel nothing unusual, while another time they might experience a severe reaction. Its intensity can be influenced by the type of meat, preparation method, alcohol, physical activity after eating, or lack of sleep.
Triggers can be found in medicines or cosmetics
For more sensitive people, the reaction can be caused not only by meat, but also by dairy products, gelatin, or other components derived from mammals.
They can be found in some medicines, vaccines, cosmetics, or products containing lanolin. As a result, a person may only learn about the allergy during a medical procedure or after starting to use a specific preparation.
The BBC also described the story of Elizabeth Rowley. For many years she suffered from chest pain, numbness in her arms, body aches, and breathing difficulties, but doctors could not find the cause for a long time.
The woman was even told she was becoming a hypochondriac. Later, it turned out that her symptoms were caused by alpha-gal syndrome.
Asthma can mask anaphylaxis
Jeremy’s case showed that food-induced anaphylaxis can be mistaken for an asthma attack.
According to Sh.van Nunen, in many fatal cases of food-induced anaphylaxis, the allergic reaction triggers extremely severe respiratory distress. For people with asthma, the danger can be even greater, as the true cause of the attack is not always recognized in time.
Currently, Jeremy’s mother is collaborating with the hospital where her son was treated and is helping to organize medical training on alpha-gal syndrome. “If only people knew what a tick can do,” said the professor who discovered the link between allergies and ticks.
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