Badger Len: Beware The Lone Star Tick
by Leonard Shapiro
Here’s a story that merits attention. It involves an insidious and apparently increasingly common threat known as the Lone Star tick. Originally identified in Texas, it’s now made its way up the east coast, and for some, its bite can trigger a serious allergic reaction.
Last September, one member of our community had a cheeseburger at a fast food restaurant and not long after, noticed some hives. It was nothing serious and she chalked it up to possibly tainted beef.
A month later, she had another cheeseburger for dinner at a local eatery. She went to sleep around 11 p.m. and a few hours later, was in serious distress—hives that were maddeningly itching, stomach cramps and pain. When she stood up, she almost fainted.
At that point, a call to 911 was in order and she was transported by ambulance to the Winchester Hospital. Emergency room doctors were mystified as to what had caused her discomfort, but a few days later, her husband was working out in a local gym and was telling people about his wife’s scary episode. One woman said she’d heard similar stories recently about the same sort of reaction from several other Middleburg residents. She also had been told that it might have been caused by what is known as the alpha-gal sugar.
“We searched the web and found out that some doctors at the University of Virginia had identified it,” the victim said. “We went down to UVa to have it checked and they said it was caused by the Lone Star tick. They said it usually took about two months for the allergy to take full effect. I never saw a tick on me. But they told me it was definitely the Lone Star.”
And the substance that triggered the frightening allergic reaction? Red meat or its byproducts. As in cheeseburger, cheeseburger.
Dr. Norris Royston, a long-time family physician in Marshall, said he’s treated several similar cases, and diagnosing the root cause can often be difficult.
“If the test comes out negative, it doesn’t mean you haven’t been affected by the organism,” he said. “You can be deathly allergic and have it affect you right away, or it can take three or four days. It’s becoming more common.”
Royston said in addition to hives, there can also be life-threatening possibilities— difficulty breathing, swelling of the tongue, tightening of the chest, heart palpitations.
“You can’t have hotdogs, you can’t have sausage, you can’t have any meat byproduct,” Royston said. “You have to start thinking chicken, chicken, chicken and a little fish.”
What’s in the beef that triggers these dramatic reactions? Beef, pork, venison, rabbit, even some dairy products,
contain alpha-gal. The tick bite triggers an immune system response. The body perceives the sugar the tick transmitted to the victim’s bloodstream and skin as a foreign substance, and makes antibodies to fight it. That sets the stage for an allergic reaction the next time the person eats red meat and encounters the alpha-gal sugar.
In 2011, two University of Virginia researchers—Dr. Scott Commins and Dr. Thomas Platts-Mills—published the first paper that linked the Lone Star tick to the allergic reaction.
“I see two to three new cases every week,” Commins told CBS News last year. According to a story on CBSnews. com, “one of the first cases they (the UVa researchers) saw was a bow hunter who had eaten meat all his life but landed in the emergency department several times with allergic reactions after eating meat. More cases kept turning up in people who were outdoors a lot.”
“It seemed something geographical,”
Commins told CBS. “We thought at first it might be a squirrel parasite. It took us a while to sort of put everything together” and finger the tick.
Allergic reactions can be treated with antihistamines to ease itching, and more severe ones with epinephrine. People with the allergy are advised to carry EpiPens with them at all times in case they’re stricken again.
Just remember the Lone Star tick. And if it bites, think chicken.
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