Matt Jacobs has a tick-induced red-meat allergy. Four doctors didn't know what it was
Matt Jacobs was diagnosed with Alpha Gal Syndrome in 2025 after searching his symptoms online. (ABC News: Charlie McLean)
In early 2025, Queenslander Matt Jacobs couldn't figure out why everything was making him sick.
"Meat would make me sick. Everything made me sick like medication and everything," the 48-year-old said.
"My sister actually Googled it and came across [something called] alpha-gal syndrome."
The "Dr Google" diagnosis was later confirmed by a general practitioner.
Matt Jacobs says his life changed completely after being diagnosed with MMA. (ABC News: Charlie McLean)
Also known as mammalian meat allergy (MMA), the tick-induced condition makes people allergic to red meats like beef and lamb, as well as products derived from them.
Last week, a coroner in New South Wales confirmed teenager Jeremy Webb was the first Australian to die from MMA.
Mr Jacobs said his life changed completely post-diagnosis.
"Every day there's just something else you can't have," he said.
"People think it's just mammal meat you can't have but it's everything that's from it.
"So your medications, your soaps, your lotions, lollies, ice-cream. You've got to change everything basically."
The creek bed where Matt Jacobs believes he sustained the tick bite. (ABC News: Charlie McLean)
At times, he is reluctant to leave his Lockyer Valley home west of Brisbane.
"I don't even bother [going to restaurants]," he said.
"It's cross-contamination and fumes. Really fatty food being cooked near [me] can bring on rashes in my face and nausea and brain fog."
Hotspots in Qld and NSW
Since 2020, reported cases have risen by around 22 per cent each year.
Australia's chief research body, the CSIRO, has been tracking the phenomenon using anonymous data from pathology providers.
"Why cases are increasing, we're not exactly sure," CSIRO senior research scientist Dr Alexander Gofton said.
The CSIRO is keeping track of mammalian meat allergy cases. (ABC News: Charlie McLean)
"We have seen an increase in testing numbers over the last decade or so.
"But our data also shows some of it is driven by an increase in true disease incidence."
Dr Gofton said the dominance of wet La Niña summers since 2020 had contributed to a spike in tick numbers.
"South-east Queensland has emerged as a high burden area for mammalian meat allergy, as has northern NSW."
Tick bites can cause people to develop alpha-gal syndrome, also known as mammalian meat allergy. (Photo courtesy of Stephen Axford)
With no cure available, Dr Gofton said prevention was the best public health response.
"The mantra that we live by is: freeze, don't squeeze," he said.
"It's important to freeze and kill a tick in place before removing it with some fine-tipped tweezers."
Calls for a 'slip slop slap' like campaign for tick bites
Matt Jacobs hopes Jeremy Webb's death will act as a wake-up call to the general public and parts of the medical profession.
"Four doctors that I had been to had never heard of it," Mr Jacobs said.
"It's not the doctor's fault so much as there's no information or education out there about it."
One of the country's peak medical bodies acknowledged general practitioners, especially in rural areas, could be better trained around anaphylaxis.
"GPs generally understand about direct food and venom-related anaphylaxis but are less well trained in rarer anaphylaxis syndromes such as alpha-gal syndrome," Royal Australian College of General Practitioners Allergy Chair Dr Nick Cooling said.
"The National Allergy Council, through its Shared Care Program, is planning to increase GP education in allergy medicine over the next two years."
National Allergy Centre of Excellence Insect Allergy Stream co-chair Professor Sheryl van Nunen said good information was available online, but many people may not know where to find it.
She highlighted that what she believed was not widely known was that the effects of MMA could reduce over time if further tick bites are avoided.
"If you've got it, if you do certain things, then you might get rid of it … in three to four years," she said.
Professor van Nunen wants to see tick-safety made known nationwide like the Cancer Council's iconic "slip, slop, slap" campaign.
"We still tell people to slip, slop, slap but everybody really knows that, don't they?" she said.
"So we reach a point when it's saturated the general community and [that's what we need] with tick information."