Tahlequah Child Diagnosed With Tick-Borne Disease Causing Red Meat Allergy

The parents of a little boy warn people to be careful of tick bites, after their son a disease from a bite that caused a red meat allergy.

The disease is called Alpha-gal Syndrome, and experts say Green Country has a lot of these cases.

Eight-year-old Ross Lindsey’s parents didn’t even know he had a tick bite.

But when he swelled up and broke out in hives after eating meat and marshmallows, they knew something was wrong.

Ross says living with Alpha-gal syndrome is tough.

"Because I don't get to eat my favorite candy and food,” said Ross.

Alpha-gal Syndrome is caused by tick bites that put a sugar molecule called Alpha-gal into humans, who don’t have that molecule.

For some people, it can cause the body to become allergic to anything with Alpha-gal in it, like red meat, milk, and gelatin.

However, Alpha-gal Syndrome cases can be very different from person to person.

Jamie Lindsey, Ross’s mother, says it’s been a challenge.

"We cook that all the time, his favorite meals were steak and sloppy joes, so having to switch over, so having to switch over all of our meals, and basically he has feathers and scales is what we can say he can have,” said Jamie.

She says luckily, Ross has a pretty mild case of it.

But they still have to watch out for anything that could be cross-contaminated or might have animal products in it.

"Going to restaurants, you don't know if it's going to be cross-contaminated, and so even if you're getting chicken or you're getting a grilled cheese, it still might be cooked where mammalian meat is cooked, so we really watched with our eating out,” said Jamie.

She says when Ross got tested for it last fall, he was the fifth kid at that doctor that day to test positive.

She hopes more people will learn about this disease and what it does.

"It's common, but then it's so not common,” said Jamie. “Like people not from this area have no idea what it is. And so when we go to certain places like when we travel, we are just very careful with where we eat."

Ross and Jamie hope people will carefully check for ticks after spending time outdoors and if you start noticing symptoms, speak up.

"Wear bug spray!" said Ross.

"I feel like if your symptoms aren't ever making sense, and nothing is making sense, I would go to an allergist and ask to be Alpha-gal tested because it's spreading so quickly,” said Jamie.