LIVING WITH ALPHA-GAL SYNDROME - Fighting a Deadly Tick Allergy

AFTER KATIE CAHOJ WAS BITTEN BY A TICK, EATING MEAT BECAME LIFE-THREATENING. THE CONCE-RARE SYNDROME IS NOW SPREADING QUICKLY IN THE U.S.

- EILEEN FINAN

Katie Cahoj thought little of it when she noticed a red welt on her leg in July 2020. Tick bites are part of the risk and ritual of summer in rural Pomona, Mo., where she lives, and Cahoj, an avid gardener and hiker, was accustomed to getting more than two dozen each season. But just weeks later Cahoj, 30, was suffering hours-long attacks in which her neck and shoulders tightened, her heart rate became erratic, and her breathing grew labored. At first, “I thought I was having anxiety issues,” she says. After all, Cahoj, an elementary school teacher, was getting ready for a new school year during a pandemic. But her nurse practitioner zeroed in on her tick bite, which had yet to heal, suggesting it could have triggered an allergy to meat. “I thought, ‘That’s the most insane thing I’ve ever heard,’” Cahoj said.

Strange as it seems, a rapidly growing number of men and women are discovering that they too have become allergic to red meat and dairy products—all because of a tick. Unknown before 2009, when only two dozen cases were identified, alpha-gal syndrome (see sidebar) affected more than 34,000 people across the U.S. by 2018. And new, still-unpublished data shows that number nearly doubled by 2020, says Dr. Scott Commins, an allergist and associate professor of medicine at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine. “The spread has been astronomical,” he says, pointing to warmer temperatures, which have lengthened the tick season and increased their range, as one reason for the rise. “I probably see 10 new patients in the clinic each week with alpha-gal.”