Unusual Allergy: A Hunter in the United States Develops Rare Reaction to Meat

The story dates back between the end of 2020 and early 2021 to believe a report of The New England Journal of Medicine. The latter reports a 47 -year -old American man, living in Michigan, who presented himself at an emergency service with rather mild symptoms. But his condition quickly worsened during his stay in hospital. The final diagnosis? Man had developed a particularly rare allergy to meat.

With regard to the first analyzes, and the few symptoms that declared themselves during his stay in hospital, the doctors immediately thought of anaphylaxis. It therefore meant that the patient had an allergic reaction to something. It was not to be taken lightly, as poorly taken care of or treated not quickly enough, the patient's vital diagnosis can be initiated.

This was quickly confirmed since the patient started to show the signs of an anaphylactic shock. Namely, a blood supply to too lower organs and tissues compared to very low standards and blood pressure. In fact, to compensate for the small amount of blood sent to the body, the heart was beating very quickly.

Once stabilized, the patient was made available to doctors so that they can perfect their diagnosis. They knew that the manager was an allergy, but what, there resided the mystery.

A rare allergy … to meat

Doctors did not immediately reached this conclusion. Already, because it is far from ordinary, but also because the 47 -year -old man had omitted, voluntarily or not, to give precious information to the medical profession.

If not a slight penicillin intolerance, the man said he had no allergy and no history in his family. But the doctors were put on a track when the man admitted to them that before arriving at the hospital for his symptoms, he had suffered many abdominal pain as well as diarrhea. The rapprochement with what had happened in the emergency room was quickly: he had independently developed a food allergy. But what? Always the same mystery.

Then a flash. Keeping in observation for a few days, the man saw the serious symptoms declare himself in the hospital again. Asked, he then declared that he had eaten beef, therefore red meat. For doctors, it was certain, the 47-year-old American had developed Alpha-Gal syndrome (SAG), a rare meat allergy and more particularly to a type of carbohydrate present in red meat.

It remained to know how he could have developed it.

An insect as guilty

We do not develop an allergy to meat like that, from nowhere. Regarding alpha-far syndrome, there are not 36 means to develop it and you have to be interested in a particular insect: Amblyomna Americanum or the star tick.

It's not complicated, it is only this insect that is known to develop such an allergy. Problem, the man assured the medical staff that he did not remember having been stuck by a tick recently. However, this tick, especially, has as a preferential host: Odocoileus virginianus or the deer of Virginia.

And what is the favorite pastime of our unlucky patient? The hunt for the deer of Virginie. This is how doctors have reached an amazing conclusion.

If the star tick has not directly triggered meat allergy, since it is known to have the deer of Virginia as a host, it is therefore by eating this meat that man has developed his new condition. Meat has therefore become, in this case, an allergen.

Indeed, the saliva of the star tick produces a substance which, if it stings us, automatically returns to the famous carbohydrate which makes us allergic to meat. However, it was certainly not expected that the transmission could be done by the consumption of a meat that man surely did not know how to be contaminated.

Having come out of the hospital, the man would never have touched red meat since his visit. The symptoms of allergy have therefore never had the opportunity to present themselves again.

Source : The New England Journal of Medicine / LiveScience