A red meat allergy caused by ticks may be present in or possible in as many as 1 in 4 people in some states, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a study published July 2.
Researchers at the CDC and other institutions analyzed 3,000 serum samples from adult blood donors across 10 states to provide better insight into the prevalence of alpha-gal syndrome (AGS), an allergy, in the United States.
They found that in five states previously identified by previous studies as having high numbers of suspected cases, 24 percent of the samples tested positive for alpha-gal–specific immunoglobulin E (IgE) antibodies.
The highest percentage of samples testing positive came from Arkansas, where 31 percent tested positive, and Missouri, where 26 percent did….