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Medicine United States

Red Meat Allergy Caused By Ticks Is an 'Emerging Public Health Concern': CDC (go.com) 116

Posted by BeauHD from the more-than-previously-known dept.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from ABC News: Alpha-gal syndrome (AGS) is a serious, potentially life-threatening allergic reaction that arises after people eat red meat or consume products with alpha-gal, a type of sugar found in most mammals, the CDC says. The syndrome is typically caused by a bite from the lone star tick, which transfers alpha-gal into the victim's body which in turn triggers an immune system response. The CDC says the number of AGS cases are underdiagnosed in the U.S. and -- despite the spread of the condition -- many clinicians aren't even aware it exists, let alone how to diagnose it. Between 2010 and 2022, there were more than 110,000 cases of AGS identified, according to the CDC.

The agency estimates the actual number of cases may be as high as 450,000 but notes the syndrome is underdiagnosed due to factors including that diagnosis requires a test, some providers are not familiar with AGS and some people with symptoms don't get tested. AGS symptoms can include hives or itchy rash, nausea or vomiting, heartburn or indigestion, diarrhea, shortness of breath, and severe stomach pain. Symptoms can range from mild to severe and typically occur two to six hours after consuming products with alpha-gal. [...] From 2010 to 2018, more than 34,000 suspected cases were identified. However, over the 2017-2022 study period, some 357,000 tests were submitted, resulting in just over 90,000 positive results. The number of new cases increased by about 15,000 each year during the five-year study period, with most cases occurring in the Southern, Midwestern, and Mid-Atlantic U.S., the CDC found. "Alpha-gal syndrome is an important emerging public health problem, with potentially severe health impacts that can last a lifetime for some patients," Dr. Ann Carpenter, and epidemiologist and lead author of one of the CDC studies, said in a statement.

"It's critical for clinicians to be aware of AGS so they can properly evaluate, diagnose, and manage their patients and also educate them on tick-bite prevention to protect patients from developing this allergic condition," she added.
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Red Meat Allergy Caused By Ticks Is an 'Emerging Public Health Concern': CDC More

Red Meat Allergy Caused By Ticks Is an 'Emerging Public Health Concern': CDC

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  • I never understood why it's preferable to kill plants rather than animals. If anything, animals are the worst offenders. Leave the plants alone.

    • Do plants have a survival strategy where they actually want you to eat them and spread their seeds, like birds?

      Have Jains been thinking about logically consistent nonviolent diet for thousands of years, and have they evolved a principle of harm reduction that eventually leads to the logical conclusion of voluntary self-starvation?

    • Yeah, imagine how many cows there would be if we didn't eat beef.

      Actually, there wouldn't be that many at all. They certainly wouldn't have enough to kill 5000 of them a day at the beef plant near me. I'm not against people eating meat though. I love steak and good hamburgers.

    • Nobody is eating plants without killing animals along the way.

      I actually like a veggie sub sometimes but I won't pretend that hundreds of insects and some number of birds and pest mammals weren't killed in agriculture, transportation, and disttibution.

      Heck, my garden vole traps need rebaiting because the eagles are not keeping up.

      Your grocery store is encircled in rat traps

      Wake up people - snap out of it!

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by pz ( 113803 )

      Efficiency. If you eat plants, there's a direct path from an energy source to you. If you eat meats, there's an intermediary stage (growing the animal from plants you could eat, more-or-less) that reduces the system efficiency.

      Now, add in the methane produced by most animals when you grow them for food, and things get a little worse.

      Add in the additional farming necessary to supply this inefficiency, and things get even worse.

      On top of that, while it appears that since man is an omnivore, a healthy diet i

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by djinn6 ( 1868030 )

        Except I'm not particularly worried about my energy intake (or rather, I'm slightly concerned about having too much of it). I can easily afford to buy enough food calories to feed a hundred people.

        My goal when I eat something is to enjoy the experience. It really doesn't matter what kind of food it is or how it's made. If it looks, smells and tastes good, and it doesn't poison me, then that's all that matters. The only metric I'd consider optimizing is enjoyment per dollar. But even then, it's not that simp

    • Agreed. The sad fact is, for the time being, humans must kill / maim other lifeforms in order to live. Any contrary argument is simply an argument for a death sentence (for humanity).

      "But...but...plants don't have central nervous systems...or nerve cells...so it's cool when we hack off their limbs / eat their children / etc." -> There was an article, a few years back, here on /., about how plants do, in fact, feel pain. They react by (I believe) emitting an ultrasonic noise, when deprived of water for to

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by jonadab ( 583620 )
      > I never understood why it's preferable to kill plants rather than animals.

      It depends. In times of famine, you can feed more people by feeding them the grain directly, than by feeding the grain to the animals and then feeding the animals to the people. It's more efficient, because not all of the food energy from the grain that the animals eat, ends up in the meat.

      But there are caveats to that argument. Some animals can live on things people don't (or don't want to) eat, which undermines the efficienc

  • The Lone Star Tick (Score:5, Funny)

    by 93 Escort Wagon ( 326346 ) on Friday July 28, 2023 @12:28AM (#63720420)

    I'm sensing something wonderfully ironic about a bunch of Texans finding themselves unable to eat red meat...

    • And having to confess that they feel at least as good without it.
      • Never seen anybody with red meat allergy confess such a thing, they all say it sucks.
        • Try people who do physical work?

          • Try people who do physical work?

            What are you trying to say? That people who do physical work feel better than those who don't? I'm sure you're 100% correct. Incidentally meat eaters who do physical work also feel better than those who don't.

            Your comment is so sad. It shows a complete lack of understanding that people can like different things.

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by HiThere ( 15173 )

              Actually, people who do hard physical work tend to get the "pains of age" at a much younger age. But it does work out better if you get MODERATE exercise and eat a MODERATE balanced diet.

              OTOH, more physical exertion does make eating more meat more desirable. But note that athletes use carb loading rather then meals heavy in meat before a meet.

      • And having to confess that they feel at least as good without it.

        Not AGS, but my wife had to stop consuming red meat for two years while she was stationed in a country where something about the way the locals processed red meat wreaked havoc with her system. Upon returning to the US, she was gun shy enough that she waited another few years.

        Contrary to your suggestion, she felt lethargic and sad. The day she was able to tuck into a classic burger for the first time in five years was one of the best days of her life.

        That’s not to say that everyone needs red meat or t

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by spth ( 5126797 )
      Pigs have been genetically modified to not produce galactose-alpha-1,3-galactose; these are safe to eat for people with the allergy; In the US they have been approved by the FDA in 2020. If the allergy spreads, more farmers will raise such pigs to meet demand.
    • What is wonderful about people suffering? That's a bad thing.

      Or are you using the term "ironic" correctly to indicate that your intention is to mean the literal opposite of your statement? I.e., that you think it is terrible and are using sarcasm (subclass of irony) to indicate it,

    • clearly, the only possible response to this news is . . .

      SPOON!!! :)

      [good heavens, all this posts and no-one made this connection? Or tried a joke about the alpha-gal back in high school? what has this place *come* to???]

  • As a cow, I welcome our new tick overlords. I'm unaffected, because I eat grass. (But mostly because I'm dead.)
  • Can't we make ticks alergic to red meat as well? Bastards.
  • Get bit by a Lonestar tick and save the planet!

  • So that is what we call vegatarians. now.

  • Somebody should be releasing millions of these little buggers in Texas. I'd laugh myself sick if a measurable percentage of the population had to turn to fish (like the legendary Lubbock Sand Trout, pork, chicken, and vegetables.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by ls671 ( 1122017 )

      I know some people not wanting to eat fish anymore because the Oceans have become the planet's dumpster, I still eat fish and crustaceans but only once in a while now, maybe about once a month.

      • I have to admit, I now avoid anything that's a bottom feeder. Like you, I haven't stopped completely, but I've definitely cut back. I'm told mercury levels in tuna are a problem, too.

  • Well, a lot more than 2. But for this discussion, there are those who are worriers and there are those who aren't worriers, and also those who fall near the middle of this spectrum. I used to fall near the middle. My wife was on the worriers side when we married in the last century. What I have learned over all my reading of news and how it has changed over time is that I have moved from the middle of the worry spectrum to the not worry side. My wife has also moved from the worry side to the middle whe

    • Re:There are two types of people (Score:5, Informative)

      by pjt33 ( 739471 ) on Friday July 28, 2023 @03:17AM (#63720726)

      This headline doesn't look sensationalised at all. "Emerging public health concern" is a term of art for the CDC which meets that the issue in question has hit certain thresholds.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by dstwins ( 167742 )
        Honestly, its not really a problem..

        A few people can't eat red meat.. oh boo hoo..

        In the modern world, we have tons of other sources of protein that doesn't have to come from animals.. (Which would actually HELP humanity.. reducing methane, water consumption, wastes, etc...). So I mean while this is annoying.. (I rank it up there with people that can't see the colour blue very well) its hardly "telethon" worthy (except for the beef industry who's shitting bricks.. and ironically feeding it to cows).
  • For all my life that I can remember, I've had trouble with red meat. As long as I ate some, symptoms were reduced. But, whence I went "cold turkey", any larger quantity of red meat, including the other red meat pork, would cause a much more pronounced effect. Once I had actual food poisoning, vomiting, diarrhea and all. Mistook that for my "red meat allergy". Wish I knew then, because I could have sued the restaurant that gave me food poisoning.

    To be fair, I can eat pepperoni pizza. Though, if I make my own pizza, I use turkey pepperoni just to be safer. Milk products don't seem to cause much problems. But, it is possible that I get some itchiness from such. It is just mild enough that I won't currently give up cheese. Or pizza! I am glad that their is turkey bacon, so I can still have a BLT when I want one.


    It appears that I got AGS either from living near Palm Springs, CA or Flagstaff, AZ, in the mid or early sixties. So I at least don't believe AGS could be a conspiracy by the vegans, vegetarians, or lab grown meat produces. (Did I leave any one out? Should I have added politicians? Or the UFO people?)


    I've only learned about Alpha Gal Syndrome recently, the last few years. Certainly not before COVID-19. (Gee, is that going to be a thing now? Time before COVID-19, and the time after COVID-19?). So I have not yet been officially diagnosed. Next time I am in the proper type of doctors office, I will ask for the test. (Can't see asking a dermatologist or dentist to perform the test :-).

  • ...as if it was a bad thing.

  • I worked as a park ranger (basically security guard for city parks) in MN from around 1987-1989 while I was in college.

    I had a noticeable tick bite on my leg at some point (my g/f noticed it before I did) which we watched carefully as Lyme Disease was just becoming "a thing" but it didn't really develop as those bites were described, and, I had no symptoms so...whatever, move on. Meanwhile since then I've been tested for Lyme a half-dozen times, nothing.

    Fast forward to 1990, and I have a job where I'm invo

  • A disease that reduces the human consumption of unsustainable amounts of red meat? Sounds reasonable from an environmental standpoint. And it doesn't even reduce humans to being vegetarian, as they can still eat seafood and poultry.

  • Given the disinterest most doctors have in staying current with medical diagnostics. The sooner we can replace them with AI the better. Far too many people have to spend years searching for a doctor with enough competence to get the correct diagnosis and even then it does not mean they will get the best treatment.

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