CARLA Simmons has only left her house three times in two years and when she does, she wears a respirator mask.
“It’s dangerous and I don’t want to die,” she said.
Carla is suffering from mammalian meat allergy which she contracted from tick bites.
Despite suffering for about 23 years and being diagnosed with a range of illnesses, including irritable bowel syndrome and arthritis, it was only two years ago she finally got tested for the allergy.
“When I look back, they were all signs,” she said.
Australia has the highest prevalence in the world of tick-induced allergies.
Because symptoms usually occur four to six hours after eating meat they are not immediately associated with the food.
Symptoms include a gut reaction, welts, rashes and swelling through to life-threating anaphylaxis.
Carla suffers from a gut reaction which results in severe stomach cramping, a drop in blood pressure and vomiting.
She’d wake at 3am thinking she had food poisoning.
According to the Australian Society of Clinical Immunology and Allergy the allergy can present at any time after being bitten by a tick – even years later.
Leading allergy specialist clinical professor Sheryl van Nunen was the first to describe the allergy and said it’s not rare and is on the rise.
“The humid autumns are increasing the number of ticks. There is an epidemic of it in Australia,” she stated.
Professor van Nunen said while 50 per cent of people will be sensitised, only 15-20 per cent will be clinically allergic to meat after two tick bites.
“Avoiding meat is the easy part. It’s the other things that can get you,” she stressed.
“If you need to go to hospital, it’s going to take a lot of time for people to work out what to give you and what not to give you.”
Because mammalian products are in many drugs, Professor van Nunen said regulatory authorities should be looking at everything they approve, including the new flu vax, which she said is made in canine kidneys.
“It’s so common we need to be doing more to help people avoid the pitfalls of being allergic,” she said.
And she strongly recommended anyone with a family history of coronary artery disease (CAD) to get tested because if you are affected by mammalian meat allergy there is an increased incidence of coronary artery disease.
In addition, she said, if you have family history of CAD and live in a tick endemic area you have about a 27 per cent risk of having alpha-gal allergy antibody, even if you are asymptomatic of mammalian meat allergy and about the same chance of having CAD.
It was about twelve months ago that Ingrid Gill from Canungra pulled six little ticks off herself.
“I got the ones I noticed off my neck, but one was above my stomach and I’d probably scratched and knocked the head off and it got infected,” she said.
“About a week later I was at work and could feel all my muscles being heavy and aching and got a headache. I had stomach pains as well and was going to the toilet a lot.”
The first doctor misdiagnosed her and put her on antibiotics. Fortunately, Dr David Christensen from Canungra Valley Medical knew exactly what it was and did a blood test.
“My reading was 100 per cent with the gamma gal infection in the blood,” Ingrid said.
“I can’t eat any meat at all. My diet is vegetables, fruit and fish and eggs.
“I predominantly go vegan. I have to make sure my supplements aren’t coated in animal products.
“It’s very scary because you don’t know what’s going to set you off. I’ve lost weight, about seven kilograms which is the bonus.”
Ingrid’s biggest disappointment is not being able to get out and garden. She now has to employ a gardener.
“It’s the fear of getting a tick again,” she explained.
“My husband got a tick at Christmas, and my heart rate just went up. It’s mentally debilitating when you know what happens if you get one.
“The thought of getting another one is really stressful.
“It’s not an instant reaction. It could take three days to a week for the effect to set in so I have to think what have I had a week ago if I have eaten something new.”
Tamborine Mountain Medical Practice principal Dr Leanne Carr-Brown said the mountain is a hotspot for mammalian meat allergy, with one Brisbane allergy expert referring to it as “tick mountain”.
“We are probably seeing more of it and I suspect there are cases going undetected. Those with minor symptoms may not recognise what it is,” she said.
“All our doctors are aware of the allergy. We update any new doctor on tick problems.”
Dr Carr-Brown said people with irritable bowel symptoms and a history of tick bites who later develop symptoms that come on after eating red meat should get checked.
Prevention, she said, is the key.
Wear long sleeves and long trousers tucked into socks spray yourself with insect repellent and wear a broad brim hat.
Dr Carr-Brown warned that it’s not just the big ticks that can cause the problem. Any stage in the life cycle of the tick can be a trigger for mammalian meat allergy, even the small nymph stage.
She advised people to always have a product at home and not pull off a live tick as this will cause it to inject more saliva which contains the alpha-gal allergy.
“It needs to be killed quickly, either freezing or using ether spray found in Aerostart,” she said.
“Anything else will irritate the tick causing it to inject more saliva into you.”
The good news is Professor van Nunen said the vast majority of people will lose the allergic reaction provided they don’t get bitten again for the rest of their life.
