Some unfortunate people suffer from severe recurrent allergic reactions in which their airway conclude up and their blood pressure crashes to dangerous horizontal surface – and yet they are none the wiser to their causal agent . Well a new report published in the journalAllergyfound that in the United States , up toalmost 10 percentof these unexplained anaphylaxis cases may be down to click - have meat allergies .
This may go like something from science fabrication , but in late years there ’s been a grow awareness to the reaction because of a rare arachnid known formally as the lone star tick , but also as the “ reverse zombie ” tick . When some people are bitten by this little beastie , it can cause them to become allergic to red heart and soul , and it might be more usual than cerebration .
For the study , the team examined unexplained anaphylaxis in 70 patient role and found that six of them tested positive for being allergic to galactose - a-1,3 - galactose ( alpha - gal ) . This is a sugar that is only establish in non - primate mammals and is a quality index number they ’ve been bitten by the lone star check . This means that up until now , their unexplained allergic reaction is due to cherry meat .
It is thought that when the ticks bite a man after having fed on another mammalian , the sugar chance in these barbarian animals ' origin gets mixed in with the tick ’ saliva and injected into the dead body . As the immune system launches its attack against the tick , there is a crossover and the organic structure not only produce antibodies against the arachnoid , but also against the refined sugar alpha - gal .
This means that whenever the physical structure then experiences the sugar again , such as after eating meat , the body launches another attack and causes the sensitised reaction .
“ We often think of ticks as carriers of infective diseases , such as Lyme disease , but the research strongly suggests that bites from this particular species of check can lead to this strange allergic reaction , ” says co - author Melody C. Carter , staff clinician at NIAID ’s Division of Intramural Research , in astatement . “ The association is more and more clear , but we still need to come across on the button how these two event are linked and why some people with similar exposure to check bite seem to be more prostrate to educate alpha - gal allergy than others . ”
They found that the six people suffering from the allergy did indeed have a history of being bitten by jejune lone star tick . The natural statistical distribution of the ticks in the SW of the United States , as well as New York , New Jersey , and New England , couple well with thereported cases of the allergy .
It ’s potential that the gap between eating the meat and the reaction , which is typically three hours , slow diagnoses of the allergy .
