2026年8月23日 / 美国东部时间上午9:16 / 哥伦比亚广播公司新闻（CBS News）
作者：大卫·波格 特约记者，《CBS周日早晨》栏目
大卫·波格曾六次斩获艾美奖，凭借在《CBS周日早晨》的报道获奖，自2002年起担任该栏目特约记者。他还主持CBS新闻播客《无名科学》，是《纽约时报》畅销书作家、五次TED演讲嘉宾，并主持了20部PBS的《新星》科学特辑。他曾连续13年为《纽约时报》撰写每周科技专栏，另有10年为《科学美国人》撰写每月专栏。
1975年，一部在马萨葡萄园岛拍摄的电影让人们不敢下水。如今，马萨葡萄园岛上一种真实存在的动物却让人们不敢出门。“如今已经到了祖父母都不让孙辈来看望他们的地步，”山姆·特尔福德说道。
“我们只能待在公寓里，”本·德福雷斯特说，“你根本不知道，这些小东西到处都是。情况已经从20英尺长的大白鲨，变成了小到能放在针尖上的顶级捕食者。”
我们说的是蜱虫。
2026年5月18日，马萨诸塞州阿奎纳，蜱虫调查期间，一只孤星蜱虫爬过蜱虫生物学家帕特里克·罗登-雷诺兹家中后院的蜱虫拖网。芬恩·戈麦斯/《波士顿环球报》盖蒂图片社
数个世纪以来，蜱虫一直给人类传播疾病，包括莱姆病、巴贝西虫病、埃立克体病和落基山斑疹热。但今年情况尤为特殊。因蜱虫叮咬前往急诊室就诊的人数达到近十年来的峰值，蜱虫扩散到了美国更多地区——更糟糕的是，一种新的可怕病症登上了新闻头条：α-半乳糖综合征。仅一次蜱虫叮咬，就可能让你对肉类产生严重过敏：牛肉、猪肉、小牛肉、羊肉、鹿肉、兔肉，除海鲜和家禽外的所有肉类。
阿德里安娜·斯蒂莫拉住在马萨葡萄园岛，这里的α-半乳糖综合征已呈流行病态势。“午夜在海滩吃了汉堡大约五小时后，我醒来时浑身起疹，手部肿胀，还伴有胃部不适，”她说道。
她的孩子和丈夫也被感染了。“他吃了一个汉堡，午夜时分突然从床上弹起来，”她回忆道，“很快他就说：‘我的嘴巴怪怪的，嘴唇肿了。’我当时就说：‘赶紧上车！’”
α-半乳糖过敏反应可能包括过敏性休克，此时你的气道会闭合。部分人还会对乳制品过敏，甚至对肉类的气味产生反应。有些人接触到含有动物成分的物品就会过敏，比如棉花糖、多力多滋薯片和药用胶囊。
斯蒂莫拉表示，这种病甚至影响了她去朋友家聚餐：“这种感觉真的很糟糕，”她说，“说‘哦，我不能吃那个’的时候心里很不是滋味，因为我怀念那种和大家一起吃大家都爱的食物的联结感。”
CBS新闻
本·德福雷斯特在马萨葡萄园岛长大，“在树林里、水里、田野里，什么都玩过，”他说，“但我现在再也不去那些地方了。我只待在沥青和水泥铺就的地方。”
德福雷斯特是红猫厨房的老板，他为应对马萨葡萄园岛的流行病推出了特殊菜单。“当你外出就餐时，你未必想向一个只是帮你点餐的陌生人解释你全部的病史，”他说。
他向我们展示了“适配α-半乳糖综合征”的无红肉菜单上的一道菜：大比目鱼、欧芹和公牛血（“其实是甜菜”）。
蜱媒疾病
塔夫茨大学传染病与全球健康教授山姆·特尔福德表示，α-半乳糖综合征于2000年代中后期被发现，在美国并非全新出现的病症：“完全不是。有趣的是，它之所以在全国范围内受到关注，是因为汉普顿斯和马萨葡萄园岛这类地方，而实际上南部和中西部的民众一直都在受此困扰。南方人会说：‘哎，你知道吗，要是你家狗身上没蜱虫，那算什么狗？’”
那么，如今有什么变化？“现在是 awareness（认知度提升了），”特尔福德说。
Alpha-gal是半乳糖-α-1,3-半乳糖的缩写，这是一种由孤星蜱虫携带的糖分子。而孤星蜱虫的数量正在激增，尤其是在东北部地区。
蜱虫分为小（幼虫）、中（若虫）、大（成虫）三个阶段。
我们和汤姆·马瑟（又名“蜱虫专家”）一同外出，他是罗德岛大学公共卫生昆虫学教授。他给了我一双经过氯菊酯化学药剂处理的袜子，这种药剂可以杀死蜱虫。但他仍然建议我把裤腿塞进袜子里。
罗德岛大学公共卫生昆虫学教授汤姆·马瑟和特约记者大卫·波格深入蜱虫栖息地（讽刺地挥舞着白旗）。CBS新闻
如今是罗德岛的蜱虫幼虫季，可以在树叶背面找到蜱虫。一团毛茸茸的棕色“幼虫炸弹”是密密麻麻的幼虫集群，只要有任何物体经过，它们就会一拥而上。
蜱虫“幼虫炸弹”。CBS新闻
挥舞白色拖网几秒后，拖网上就爬满了孤星蜱虫——也就是引发α-半乳糖综合征的蜱虫。我可能离再也不能吃肉只有一英寸远了！
好多蜱虫！CBS新闻
蜱虫宿主
任何关于蜱媒疾病的讨论最终都会提到鹿。我们面临蜱虫问题，是因为我们面临鹿患问题。“白尾鹿是孤星蜱虫和鹿蜱的主要繁殖地，”奥布里·斯蒂莫拉·瑞恩说道，她在马萨葡萄园岛医院和自己的诊所接诊蜱虫叮咬患者，“而这里的鹿群数量极其庞大，已经失控了。”
“一只鹿一季可以养活1500只蜱虫，”瑞恩说，“而一只雌性蜱虫就能产下2000枚卵！所以，一只鹿就能催生300万只蜱虫。”
山姆·特尔福德表示：“我们不想消灭鹿，我们只是想把它们的数量降到殖民时期的水平。”
据特尔福德称，公众对猎杀鹿的抵触情绪可能正在改变：“我花了40年时间试图让社区减少鹿的数量，之前莱姆病都没能让他们行动起来。但现在这种新病症——α-半乳糖综合征，正促使各地社区表示：‘够了。减少鹿的数量就能减少蜱虫，所以，我们就这么办吧。’”
如今，并非每一次蜱虫叮咬都会让人感染疾病；并非每个患上α-半乳糖综合征的人都会出现肉类过敏。即便真的出现过敏，也未必是终身的。“随着时间推移，症状似乎会有所好转，”特尔福德说，“如果你不再被蜱虫叮咬，可以慢慢将肉类重新纳入饮食中。”
奥布里·斯蒂莫拉-瑞恩也给出了类似的建议：“喷洒皮肤和衣物。回家后立刻脱下衣服，用高温烘干10分钟。每天检查自己两次身上有没有蜱虫。”
汤姆·马瑟特别建议检查紧身衣物可能阻挡蜱虫的部位：“腰带是个好地方，还有腹股沟的褶皱处。女性的文胸肩带也会挡住蜱虫。”
至于阿德里安娜·斯蒂莫拉，她继续过着没有肉类的生活，并且持有一种豁达的态度：“我们在养殖（尤其是）供食用的牛群方面造成了太多破坏。所以，我认为这或许能让我们重新思考食用肉类的方式、我们吃多少肉、养殖方式，以及我们在更大的食物链中处于什么位置，提醒我们自己是更大生态系统的一部分。”
更多信息：
- 托马斯·马瑟，罗德岛大学虫媒疾病中心主任
- 罗德岛大学蜱虫遭遇资源中心
- 山姆·特尔福德三世，塔夫茨大学卡明斯兽医学院传染病与全球健康教授
- 马萨葡萄园岛医疗中心蜱虫中心，马萨诸塞州奥克布拉夫斯
- TickWiseMV（Instagram账号）
- 无蜱虫马萨葡萄园岛
- 红猫厨房，马萨葡萄园岛
本报道由戴维·罗斯曼制作。编辑：史蒂文·泰勒。
The explosion of ticks and Alpha-gal syndrome
August 23, 2026 / 9:16 AM EDT / CBS News
By David Pogue Correspondent, “CBS Sunday Morning”
David Pogue is a six-time Emmy winner for his stories on “CBS Sunday Morning,” where he’s been a correspondent since 2002. Pogue hosts the CBS News podcast “Unsung Science.” He’s also a New York Times bestselling author, a five-time TED speaker, and host of 20 NOVA science specials on PBS. For 13 years, he wrote a New York Times tech column every week – and for 10 years, a Scientific American column every month.
In 1975, a movie filmed in Martha’s Vineyard made people afraid to go into the water. Today, a real animal in Martha’s Vineyard is making people afraid to go outside. “It’s gotten to the point now that grandparents are not allowing their grandchildren to come visit them,” said Sam Telford.
“We stay in the apartment,” said Ben DeForest. “You just don’t know; these things are out there. It’s gone from a 20-foot great white shark, to an apex predator that can fit on the tip of a needle.”
We’re talking about ticks.
A lone star tick crawls across Tick biologist Patrick Roden-Reynolds’ tick drag in the backyard of a home during a tick survey, May 18, 2026, in Aquinnah, Mass. Finn Gomez/The Boston Globe via Getty Images
Ticks have been giving us diseases for centuries, including Lyme disease, babesiosis, ehrlichiosis, and Rocky Mountain spotted fever. But this year is remarkable. Emergency room visits for tick bites are the highest they’ve been in nearly a decade, as ticks spread into new parts of the country — and to top it off, a new horror has hit the headlines: Alpha-gal syndrome. One tick bite can make you violently allergic to meat: beef, pork, veal, lamb, venison, rabbit, everything but seafood and poultry.
Adriana Stimola lives on Martha’s Vineyard, where Alpha-gal is an epidemic. “About five hours after having a hamburger on the beach at midnight, I wake up and I have a rash, I have some swelling in my hands, and I’m in gastric distress,” she said.
Her children got it, too, and her husband. “He had a burger, and at midnight woke up and shot out of bed,” she recalled. “Pretty quickly he was like, ‘My mouth feels weird. My lips are swelling.’ And I just said, ‘Get in the effing car!’”
Alpha-gal reactions can include anaphylactic shock, where your airways close up. Some people become allergic to dairy products, too, or even to the aroma of meat. Some react to things that contain animal products, like marshmallows, Doritos, and medicine capsules.
Stimola says it has even affected going to a friend’s house for dinner: “I feel that really deeply,” she said. “It kind of hurts to say, ‘Oh, I can’t eat that,’ ’cause I miss that kind of connection where I’m eating food that other people love.”
CBS News
Ben DeForest grew up on Martha’s Vineyard, “in the woods, in the water, in the fields, all of that,” he said. “And I don’t go there anymore. I stay on asphalt and concrete.”
DeForest is the owner of the Red Cat Kitchen, where he’s accommodated the Martha’s Vineyard epidemic by creating a special menu. “When you go out to eat, you don’t necessarily feel like explaining your entire medical history to a stranger who’s taking your order,” he said.
He showed us a dish from his “Alpha-gal friendly,” no-red-meat menu: Halibut, parsley, and bull’s blood (“It’s beets”).
Tick-borne diseases
Alpha-gal syndrome, which was discovered in the mid- to-late 2000s, is not brand-new to the country, says Sam Telford, a professor of infectious disease and global health at Tufts University: “Not at all. And in fact, it’s very interesting that it has risen to national prominence because of places like the Hamptons and Martha’s Vineyard, when in fact people in the South and Midwest have been suffering this all along. Southerners are like, ‘Well, you know, if you don’t have a dog with ticks on it, what kind of dog is that?’”
So, what has changed? “It’s awareness now,” said Telford.
Alpha-gal is short for galactose-α-1,3-galactose, a sugar molecule carried by the lone star tick. And lone star ticks are surging, especially in the Northeast.
Ticks come in small (larva), medium (nymph), and large (adult) sizes.
We went out with Tom Mather (a.k.a. the Tick Guy), a professor of public health entomology at the University of Rhode Island.He gave me socks that have been treated with a chemical called permethrin, that can actually kill ticks. But he still advises to tuck my pants into my socks.
Professor Tom Mather and correspondent David Pogue venture into tick habitat (ironically waving a white flag). CBS News
It’s larva season in Rhode Island, and ticks can be found on the underside of leaves. A fuzzy brown “larval bomb” is a teeming cluster of larvae, ready to explode onto any passing disturbance.
A tick “larval bomb.” CBS News
After dragging white flags for a few seconds, the flags were covered in lone star ticks — the Alpha-gal variety. I am potentially one inch away from never being able to eat meat again!
Ticks, lots of ’em! CBS News
Tick carriers
Any discussion of tick diseases eventually brings up deer. We have a tick problem because we have a deer problem. “The white-tailed deer are the primary breeding ground for lone star ticks, as well as deer ticks,” said Aubrey Stimola Ryan, who treats tick-bite patients at Martha’s Vineyard Hospital, and in her own clinic. “And we have a very large sort of out-of-control deer population here.
“One deer can feed 1,500 ticks per season,” Ryan said. “And one tick can lay 2,000 eggs, one female tick! So, that’s 3 million ticks that are coming off of one deer.”
Sam Telford said, “We don’t want to eradicate deer. We just want to bring them down to a level that is something that the colonists had.”
According to Telford, the public’s aversion to killing deer may be changing: “I’ve worked on trying to get communities to reduce their deer for 40 years now, and Lyme disease wasn’t enough. But now this new syndrome, Alpha-gal syndrome, is stimulating communities to say, ‘Enough is enough. Reducing deer will reduce ticks, and so, let’s go there.’”
Now, not every tick bite gives you a disease; and not everyone with Alpha-gal develops the meat allergy. And even if you do, it may not be a life sentence. “Over time, it seems like it can get better,” said Telford. “You can slowly introduce meat products back into your diet over time, if you don’t get bitten by ticks again.”
Aubrey Stimola-Ryan has advice along those lines: “Spraying your skin, spraying your clothes. When you come inside, take your clothes off and throw them in the dryer for 10 minutes on high. And check yourself for ticks twice a day.”
In particular, Tom Mather suggests checking wherever tight clothing might stop a moving tick: “Your waistband is a good spot, certain cracks and crevices of your groin. Women, their bra straps will stop ticks as well.”
As for Adriana Stimola, life goes on — without meat, and with a philosophical outlook: “We’ve done a lot of damage raising, especially, cattle for our consumption. So, I think maybe it will make us talk about the way we eat meat, how much we eat meat, the way that we raise it, where do we fit in the greater sort of food chain, and reminding us that we are part of a larger system.”
For more info:
- Thomas Mather, director, Center for Vector-Borne Disease, University of Rhode Island
- TickEncounter Reserouce Center, University of Rhode Island
- Sam Telford III, professor of Infectious Disease and Global Health, Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, Tufts University
- The Tick Center at Martha’s Vineyard Medical, Oak Bluffs, Mass.
- TickWiseMV (Instagram)
- Tick Free Martha’s Vineyard
- Red Cat Kitchen, Martha’s Vineyard
Story produced by David Rothman. Editor: Steven Tyler.