http://news.yahoo.com/allergic-meat-lone-star-tick-may-vegetarians-133418695--abc-news-health.html (I hate yahoo as news sources go, but I hate most all news sources.) The little pest makes people allergic to something in red meats. Damnation! That is death by tick bite here. I am so glad I doused my entire interior of my home with concentrated Fipronil solution. (That is the active ingrediant in "Frontline" flea/tick killer for cats and dogs.) It is usually 0.01% or less of the solution. I use ~5% solution on interior surfaces that will not be touched by myself and my family and animals. Any flea/tick/ant/spider that even touches the surfaces I treat will be dead in an hour. It has reduced effectiveness against some insects like roaches. But it still kills them.
I am always skeptical of any science reporting that comes from major mainstream media outlets -- that doesn't mean that they are wrong, or even mostly wrong, but that they often will -- at best -- only get a part or parts of the story correct, or overhype preliminary speculation not necessarily looking at the original sources, nor are they able to evaluate, necessarily, the credentials/reliability of those sources. In any case, according to the story, the outbreak is concentrated in central Virginia.
Incidents like these require proper study and analysis before anyone opens their big yaps too wide about them. News reports sensationalize everything. This is like the incident where it was disproved that teeth do not dissolve in soft drinks. Nobody knows to this day which side of the argument is right. Reporters going wild over things like this give medical personnel like us more headaches than problems solved/alerts issued.
The important part is "90 percent of them have a history of tick bites". What that means is, you pretty much have to be exposed to bites from these ticks for decades before you risk becoming allergic to meats.
and in any case, by the time you've been exposed to that many tick bites, you should have come down with at least one case of tick fever. The tick fever, not the history of bites, is what can end up causing a cross-reaction between meat protein and the body's white cells and antibodies. As far as I can tell, I don't think the tick saliva has anything to do with it. Sure, it promotes itching and rashes but I don't think this can cause allergic reactions to meat by itself.
I'm not that far into my studies yet but I'm pretty sure that a single tick bite can't repolarize your whole immune system. If it could, we'd probably be all dead.
You studying medicine too? Nice to see a fellow practitioner. How long have you been studying for? Except in case of pre-existing anaphylaxis, it CANNOT, as you've said, rewire the entire immune response to subsequent bites, nor can it cause immediate occurrence of cross-reactions.
I just wanted to say that, as a writer and student of the English Language, the ironic way Warlock's last post contrasts with his signature really makes me smile. Keep it up, gentlemen.
Sorry to disappoint you, I actually study Biotechnology Which has a fair bit of Immunology. Though I am visiting an additional course for basic medicine. I also love watching Emergency Room
oh. no surprise then since you'd be studying a lot about micro-organisms and the immune process as part of your lessons.
