One night in 2008, Deborah Fleshman awoke in her bed to find that her legs had turned beetroot red. Welts, some a foot wide, had appeared along her torso.
Ms. Fleshman, a nurse at the time, had earlier that evening hosted a cookout at her home in Greenwood, Del., a town of about 1,000 people 25 miles south of Dover. She drank a couple of beers. She ate a cheeseburger.
Hours later, she told her worried father, I feel like Im dying.
Ms. Fleshman, now 60, is among the thousands of Americans diagnosed with alpha-gal syndrome, an allergic reaction to mammal meats like pork, beef and lamb, which growing evidence shows can be triggered by a tick bite.
It feels like youre on fire, and then it feels like you slept with a cactus, she said. The itching is unbearable.
Researchers have traced the syndrome to the lone star tick, named for the signature white splotch, or lone star, on females backs. Theyre historically found in the southern United States, but increasingly, these arachnids are being spotted in parts of the Midwest and the Northeast.
The ticks territory is expanding, thanks in part to global warming, say scientists. With more hot days each year, the ticks, which thrive in warm and humid conditions, have more time to feed on their hosts and reproduce. At the same time, alpha-gal diagnoses appear to be rising. What were now seeing is a wide open door for ticks to continue expanding their range further northward; bringing more people into the fold of the arthropod-borne diseases, said Michael Raupp, a professor emeritus in entomology at the University of Maryland.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that between 2004 and 2019, the total number of tick-borne diseases in the United States more than doubled. In the meantime, other devastating pests that were previously constrained by cooler temperatures like the dengue virus-carrying tiger mosquito, or the cabbage-munching harlequin bug have also marched forth beyond their historic ranges.
Were venturing into uncharted waters in so many dimensions with climate change, Dr. Raupp said.
By nature, ticks are travelers; they attach themselves to hosts in order to suck their blood, hitching a ride in the process. Scientists say an explosion in the population of the white-tailed deer, their primary host, has also helped them to spread. Editors Picks Americas Wars Are Fought by Relatively Few People. Thats a Problem for Phil Klay. Can a Night Owl Become an Early Bird? Leave the Sweatshirt at Home. Dining Dress Codes Are Back. Continue reading the main story
According to some maps, the lone star tick has advanced as far west as parts of Nebraska, and as far northeast as Maine. Climatic conditions are also suitable for the ticks to establish populations along the coast of Washington, Oregon and California, other models indicate.
And today a new fear was born.
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