Tick allergies info available to give to chefs after woman’s shock diagnosis

A MUM who developed a meat allergy after a tick bite can’t go to Bunnings on a Saturday because the sausage sizzle smell could kill her. But she’s got a plan to help other sufferers.

A MUM who developed a meat allergy after a tick bite can’t even go to Bunnings on a Saturday because the smell from a sausage sizzle could kill her.

Janelle Williams, 52, from Oxford Falls, was diagnosed with mammalian meat allergy five years ago and has suffered three life-threatening incidents, including one on a plane.

Janelle Williams hands a mammalian meat allergy card to Ground Zero chef Bijay Shrestha. Picture: Troy Snook

It comes as doctors warn increasing numbers of people living on the northern beaches are being diagnosed with the devastating alpha-gal allergy, spread by ticks prevalent on the peninsula.

“I suffer an allergic reaction around 20 times a year which can normally be controlled by antihistamine or oral steroids,” said Mrs Williams.

“But I’ve needed adrenaline three times in the last five years.

“That’s when you know you’re seconds from death.”

Mrs Williams, who believes she was bitten while living in Freshwater, is extremely sensitive to beef, pork, lamb or goat, as well as products that derive from mammals including butter and dairy, some lollies and even vaccines, common brands of headache pills and Band-Aids, to name a few.

Even the smell of meat cooking can trigger anaphylaxis.

Tick allergy sufferer Janelle Williams and her husband Stefan at Ground Zero cafe, Manly. Picture: Troy Snook

Her husband Stefan, 52, said they were on a plane two months ago and four hours into a nine-hour flight his wife started having trouble breathing.

Professor Sheryl van Nunen is a leading expert on mammalian meat allergy.

“We knew it was coming because she had come out in hives,” he said.

“She needed oxygen and I had to give her an Epipen.”

Mr Williams said they were told by world mammalian meat allergy expert Professor Sheryl van Nunen that it was most likely the smell of meat being recycled through the air vents.

He said if they go in a cafe or restaurant and can smell bacon cooking they literally have to run out of there.

Despite the life-restricting allergy Mrs Williams refuses to “stop living” and has flown 30 times since the diagnosis and takes medicines and steroids before flights to combat any triggers.

She also likes to eat out, though she mainly goes to vegan restaurants to avoid cross-contamination.

Now she has helped create an information card in conjunction with Tick-induced Allergies Research and Awareness to hand to chefs which explain the meat allergy.

“More and more people are developing this allergy and it’s important to raise awareness, because it can kill,” she said.

Dr Stephen Ginsborg, a GP in Avalon, said around one in 550 have an alpha-gal allergy.

Alpha-gal is a molecule found in all mammals apart from humans and apes.

Humans tolerate it orally, but when it is enters the body via the saliva of a tick, the body detects it as a foreign substance and in some cases people go on to develop an allergy.

Bijay Shrestha with Janelle Williams and her husband Stefan

Dr Ginsborg warned northern beaches residents were more likely to suffer a life-threatening event from a tick bite than a shark bite.

“If you live on the northern beaches you are more likely to get a tick bite with dangerous consequences than you are to have a mishap with a shark,” he said.

This week marks the first Tick-induced Allergies Research and Awareness Week.

You can print out a chef card via the website tiara.org.au.