Emerging Tick Bite-Associated Meat Allergy Potentially Affects Thousands | Hacker News Reader

Emerging Tick Bite-Associated Meat Allergy Potentially Affects Thousands

cdc.gov

24 pointsbrightbeige20 comments

I read about a meat allergy due to tick bites on NPR [0], and thought the the link between tick bites and a food allergy was interesting. I posted the CDC press release instead of the NPR article.

[0] https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2023/04/02/1166431...

There were Radiolab episodes about this too:

- https://radiolab.org/podcast/alpha-gal

- https://radiolab.org/podcast/return-alpha-gal

It's worth taking the time to learn to ID the lone star tick if you haven't already as it is thought to be the main carrier, per the CDC page linked from the original article [0]. I use permethrin pretty religiously these days, especially since lyme disease is now ubiquitous in my region, and I've been impressed with the results. Where previously a half-day in the woods might result in as much as a dozen ticks on my clothing and person, I basically never find them now. hoping that permethrin use doesn't some day come back to, pardon the pun, bite me (or anyone else), but it'll have to do for now.

[0] https://www.cdc.gov/ticks/alpha-gal/index.html

Are you using permethrin as a bug spray on your clothing? I use it here on livestock and had not considered using it on myself, but I am intrigued given how effective it is for the animals. Gunna go read the label again, but I would wager that using it this way will be an off-label use.

Do you mean picaridin?

I am talking about permethrin, but maybe the GP made a typo?

Here is the product that I use on my livestock:

https://nrsworld.com/products/durvet-permethrin-10-concentra...

You and GP are probably referring to the same thing. Hikers sometimes use permethrin is on clothing, not on their bodies. No clue if what you linked would be appropriate on clothes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permethrin#Insect_repellent

Permethrin applications last multiple washings; this is also why its use can be problematic environmentally, it sticks around a long time and can hurt aquatic life. I stick to DEET on my hikes, on account of it being less damaging environmentally, but I also don't live in an especially bad area for ticks.

No, they're different compounds. Permethrin is an insecticide, picaridin also know as icaridin, is an unrelated compound that's just a repellent.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icaridin

Permethrin for treating clothes (apply thinly and let dry for 12 hours) is usually 0.5% strength, not the 10%+ used for livestock.

Permethrin is not uncommon as a fabric treatment. You soak (and then dry) your clothes in it and it provides lasting protection through a few dozen washes.

Just seeing this now - as other posters have stated, I use the low concentration clothing treatment, the Sawyer brand specifically. It works very well and even seems to last for the time period advertised on the label (6 weeks I think).

When you say half day in the woods do you mean you are going through hiking trails?

I was taught ticks usually are in long grass. No idea where they usually are since I've only seen it once and I was walking through a field with ankle high grass.

No, off trail - hunting, fishing, mushroom hunting, flipping rocks, playing around etc. Ticks are everywhere that animals are in my experience, however, and a hiking trail is no exception. Tall grass does seem worse but I’ve had many days in big woods where I ended up with ticks.

Good to know. Are they easy to spot? When they first latch on and start feeding , they're so tiny I feel like I can miss them quite easily

lone star ticks and dog ticks are relatively easy to spot as they are "big" in the grand scheme of things, but they are still pretty tiny. deer ticks, the primary carrier of lyme disease, are notoriously small and very hard to spot. as I understand, the really tiny ones (often referred to as "seed ticks" because they are the size of tiny seeds) are very unlikely to actually carry lyme disease because they will not have attached to a carrier yet (they aren't born with lyme disease), but I don't have a reference handy for that and I don't want any tick attached to me, big or small, in any case.

It’s increasingly common in Australia but we only learned of it after my wife contracted alpha-gal from a tick bite. It really needs more publicity.

How severe is alpha-gal for her? Can you return to normal or is it lifelong?

It's comparatively minor - tingling hands and flushed face but have been warned it can escalate to anaphalaxis at any time. We were told by a specialist that it can return to normal over time. Main problem is wife keeps getting more tick bites so it won't stop while that happens.

I hope she gets well soon. I’ve never heard of this before but we do a lot of hiking and camping and my wife had a tick on her the other day, so I guess we’d better be careful. I’ll have to see what kind of preventative measures there are.

Related, one of the scientists who discovered Lyme disease summarized the current state of mRNA vaccines earlier this week in an interview:

https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2023/07/the-case-of-t...

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