It could be even more serious than Lyme disease. In the United States, the bite of a tick causes severe allergies to meat. Researchers have succeeded in explaining the link between animals and allergy.
The allergy can in some cases lead to death. When a person is exposed to the particular allergen they are allergic to: they have anaphylaxis. It is a serious reaction that can lead to death. Low blood pressure, swelling in the mouth and throat, unconsciousness, the symptoms are numerous. In 60% of cases, it is a food allergy that causes the crisis.
A study, published in the American journal Allergy, shows that in the United States some cases of unexplained seizures could be linked to an allergy to meat caused by the bite of a tick.
A meat molecule in the tick’s saliva
The researchers studied 70 patients with unexplained anaphylaxis. Six of them were allergic to a molecule called Alpha Gal. It is found in meat, and in “lone star” ticks, a solitary star in French.
When humans are bitten by the tick, their immune system is mobilized to fight against the tick. However, the insect’s saliva is mixed with this molecule (the tick retains it in its saliva after having bitten another mammal), the antibodies therefore fight the tick and the molecule at the same time. It is for this reason that as soon as the person subsequently ingests meat, has an allergic reaction. The body’s reaction time in this case is about three hours, which sometimes can slow down the diagnosis of the allergy.
For researchers, we now need to understand why some people are more likely to be allergic than others after a bite.
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