At the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, "I see two to three new cases every week," said Dr. Scott Commins, who with a colleague, Dr. Thomas Platts-Mills, published the first paper tying the tick to the illness in 2011. Doctors don't know whether the allergy is permanent. Some patients show signs of declining antibodies over time. The meat allergy "does not seem to be lifelong, but the caveat is, additional tick bites bring it back," Commins said.