Australian teen first to die from tick-induced meat allergy

A coroner in Australia found that a 16-year-old who died nearly four years ago was the first confirmed fatality in the country linked to a rare tick-induced red meat allergy, public media reported on Thursday.

Jeremy Webb, from New South Wales' Central Coast, collapsed in June 2022 after eating beef sausages during a camping trip at MacMasters Beach, public outlet ABC reported.

Friends attempted to revive him before he was taken to the hospital, where he later died.

His death was initially attributed to asthma, but New South Wales (NSW) Deputy State Coroner Carmel Forbes has now determined that an anaphylactic reaction to mammalian meat triggered a fatal asthma attack.

Sheryl van Nunen, from the Tick-Induced Allergies Research & Awareness and National Allergy Centre of Excellence, told ABC that Jeremy's death was the first documented case of mammalian meat allergy, also known as alpha-gal syndrome, in the country and just the second in the world.

The tick-induced condition, known as alpha-gal syndrome, is a potentially life-threatening allergy to red meat such as beef, pork, and lamb, and sometimes to gelatin and animal fats, although deaths are rare.