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November 14, 2025<\/p>\n
2 min read<\/p>\n
Man With Tick-Borne Meat Allergy Dies after Eating Burger<\/p>\n
Lone star tick bites are the most common cause of alpha-gal syndrome, which causes severe allergic reactions to red meat<\/p>\n
By Claire Cameron edited by Tanya Lewis<\/span><\/p>\n Kasey Decker\/Getty Images<\/p>\n Scientists have confirmed the first death linked to a severe meat allergy caused by a tick bite. The man, who died in 2024 after eating a burger, had alpha-gal syndrome, a disease triggered by tick bites that causes people to develop anaphylactic reactions to red meat and other animal-based products.<\/p>\n The man\u2019s case was detailed in a paper published this week in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology: In Practice. According to the researchers, the man started to vomit hours after having a burger at a barbecue in New Jersey.<\/p>\n Two weeks before he died, the man had experienced an allergic reaction to a steak. \u201cThe tragedy is that they didn\u2019t think of that episode as anaphylaxis, and therefore didn\u2019t connect it to the beef at the time,\u201d said study co-author Thomas Platts-Mills, an allergist at the University of Virginia School of Medicine, who helped discover alpha-gal syndrome and diagnosed the New Jersey case, in an interview with NBC News.<\/p>\n If you’re enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.<\/p>\n Alpha-gal syndrome causes allergic reactions to a sugar molecule in meat. It is unlike other food allergies, however, in that the reaction is often delayed: people can feel sick hours after eating meat, and the symptoms can be confused with food poisoning. It is most often caused by a lone star tick bite, although bites from other ticks can cause the syndrome.<\/p>\n Scientists suspect that many people with alpha-gal syndrome may not know they have it\u2014in the man\u2019s case, it took scientists months to work out that he had the syndrome and had died from it. And because of warming winters, tick bites are becoming more common year-round.<\/p>\n People who suspect they may have the syndrome can get tested to confirm it. While there is no cure for alpha-gal, scientists recommend that people with the condition avoid all meat products, as well as dairy, gelatin and some medications made with these products.<\/p>\n If you enjoyed this article, I\u2019d like to ask for your support. 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I hope you\u2019ll support us in that mission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" November 14, 2025 2 min read Man With Tick-Borne Meat Allergy Dies after Eating Burger Lone star tick bites are the most common cause of alpha-gal syndrome, which causes severe allergic reactions to red meat By Claire Cameron edited by Tanya Lewis Kasey Decker\/Getty Images Scientists have confirmed the first death linked to a severe<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":33604,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[10081,19030,2527,2753,1541,10759,19228],"class_list":{"0":"post-33603","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-allergy","9":"tag-burger","10":"tag-dies","11":"tag-eating","12":"tag-man","13":"tag-meat","14":"tag-tickborne"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33603","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=33603"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33603\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/33604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=33603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=33603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=33603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}On supporting science journalism<\/h2>\n
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