Alpha-Gal Syndrome
What a coincidence.<p>I was bitten by a lone star tick last week. I didn&#x27;t notice it until several days later when I found it fully engorged. I did check myself entirely after I was in tall grass, but I think it was stuck to my clothes and bit me later on.<p>I sent it in to the PA tick research lab[0] and it came back negative for the presence of Lyme disease, ehrlichiosis, tularemia and RMSF. It seems as though they can&#x27;t test for Alpha-Gal presence. Pretty cool service though and it&#x27;s largely free for PA residents (only ~$50 for the basic panel for any other state). I overnighted it and they had it tested within ~36 hours of receiving it[1]. I mostly sent the tick in for &quot;science&quot;, and because I was generally curious.<p>From my reading, it takes ~30 days for the allergy to begin showing itself. I&#x27;m not panicking, but I&#x27;d be remiss not to ask – is there anything I can do ahead of time to prevent the allergy&#x27;s development? I couldn&#x27;t find much documentation on if there are any preventative measures after finding the tick. I discovered this last week while searching and went down a bit of an internet rabbit hole. It&#x27;s pretty fascinating and information on it is thin.<p>Avoiding red meat would be annoying, but I think the real trouble comes from the cross contamination factor[2], i.e. you eat something that was prepared in the same environment as red meat. And since the allergy has a delayed reaction you may not realize it until 6 hours later, when it&#x27;s no longer on your mind and may be asleep. Some people can&#x27;t even eat fatty dairy products like ice cream.<p>[0] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.ticklab.org" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.ticklab.org</a><p>[1] For those curious what a result looks like: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;i.imgur.com&#x2F;kFoyasw.png" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;i.imgur.com&#x2F;kFoyasw.png</a> and <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;i.imgur.com&#x2F;gMsuhXZ.png" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;i.imgur.com&#x2F;gMsuhXZ.png</a><p>[2] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.reddit.com&#x2F;r&#x2F;alphagal&#x2F;comments&#x2F;gule7q&#x2F;how_much_do_you_worry_about_cross_contamination&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.reddit.com&#x2F;r&#x2F;alphagal&#x2F;comments&#x2F;gule7q&#x2F;how_much_d...</a>