An Australian coroner has ruled that the death of 15-year-old Jeremy Webb in June 2022 was caused by tick-induced mammalian meat allergy (MMA), also known as alpha-gal syndrome, marking the first death in the world officially attributed to the condition. Jeremy died after eating a beef sausage on a camping trip, having suffered an earlier, unrecognised anaphylactic reaction at a birthday party the previous year that doctors misattributed to his asthma. His mother, Myfanwy Webb, believes earlier testing could have led to a proper diagnosis and an EpiPen prescription that might have saved his life. The case has prompted scientists and campaigners to warn that MMA, though preventable, remains poorly understood and can pose a fatal risk.

MMA was first linked to tick bites in 2007 by Australian doctor Sheryl van Nunen, who identified the connection in patients at her Sydney clinic. Sydney's east coast and the United States are considered the world's two main hotspots for the allergy, with cases now recorded on every continent where ticks live. In Australia, the condition is triggered by the eastern paralysis tick: after two bites, half of people develop antibodies to alpha-gal, a sugar molecule in tick saliva, and of those, 15-20% go on to develop a meat allergy. In some areas north of Sydney, more than 700 people per 100,000 are affected, with symptoms ranging from rashes and stomach cramps to life-threatening anaphylaxis.