Why cases of alpha-gal syndrome are on the rise.
By Rachel DuRose @durosettastone | vox.com | Jul 28, 2023, 5:35pm EDT
Very little can stop the average American from eating beef — and quite a lot of it. On a per-capita basis, Americans eat nearly 60 pounds of red meat a year, equivalent to more than one quarter-pound hamburger every other day. But there’s one obstacle to our meat-loving tendencies that may not be surmountable: the tiny but aggressive lone star tick.
The tick (named for the female’s distinctive white dot on its back) can spread something called sugar alpha-gal via its spit. That sugar can trigger alpha-gal syndrome, or AGS, a condition that causes hives, nausea, heartburn, diarrhea, difficulty breathing, and a drop in blood pressure, among other symptoms, in sufferers around two to six hours after they eat beef, pork, and other mammal products. Essentially, sufferers become severely allergic to red meat.
How rare is alpha-gal?
Since researchers first linked the syndrome to ticks in 2011, there have been more than 110,000 suspected cases. But new research released on Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) estimates that the true number of sufferers between 2010 and 2022 may be as high as 450,000 people.
“I think those of us who live in it never thought the number was actually that low,” Dr. Jeffrey Wilson, an allergist and immunologist with the University of Virginia Health system, said of the confirmed number of cases. “I think the CDC report is one of the first, best attempts to get a good idea of what the real epidemiology of alpha-gal is.”
If accurate, the CDC’s AGS estimates would place an allergy to red meat as the 10th most common food allergy in the country, Dr. Scott Commins, a co-author of the CDC papers on AGS and a University of North Carolina researcher, told the Associated Press.