Your New Head of the Undergraduate Medical School - An Introduction from Prof. Malcolm Shepherd

Abstract

A long time ago….. and by a long time I
mean before new Dr Who, before iPhones
and around the first appearance of Star
Wars Lego …… truly a very long time ago,
things were simpler. Not necessarily
better, different, much simpler….not
clearly better, but definitely better!
Conversations never ended, lasting long
into the night without conclusion; no one
was blessed with facts, just opinions and
passion.
‘Britain will remain at the centre of
Europe….’
‘no way William Shatner (original Captain
Kirk for non-geeks) will ever get into
space …’
‘Glasgow could never host the biggest
cycling event of all time…..’
‘no, you could not possibly be allergic to
red meat, you are made of red meat…’
Of course now smartphones and the
internet have relegated the art of
conversation to a list of facts and dates,
and no one speaks to each other without a
series of emojis and hand gestures. Or I
might have got that wrong you tell me…….
‘But surely. Old man’ you say, carefully
picking the most contentious topic from
the list above, Surely you cannot be
allergic to red meat, we are all mammals,
and the rules of Immunology say you
cannot be immune to self.’
‘Ah’ says the wise old man (In this scenario
bizarrely that is me), ‘a long time ago you
would be correct, but in 2002 strange
reports emerged that people with a
history of tick bites, experienced
anaphylaxis after eating red meat’.
Now across the world from Australia to
North East USA the phenomenon of red
meat allergy causing strange delayed
onset anaphylaxis, often as much as 4 hours after eating has been recognised.
Breaking many rules of allergy from
rapid onset to variable presentation the
strangest aspect of this allergy is that
sensitisation seems to follow the bite of
particular species of ticks. One of those
ticks is the indigenous Deer tick in the
UK and so yes this allergy is found in
relatively high numbers in Scotland.
Don’t worry, it is very very rare, but we
have identified around 40 patients who
have this allergy after being bitten by
ticks in Scotland.
‘So what?’ you may say ‘its so rare why
should we worry’. Well the truth is that
tick populations are growing in the UK.
There are a number of reasons, but
global climate change with warmer
moister winters probably play a part.
Increased use of rural environments
with Scotland’s amazing right to roam
legislation and wonderful landscape
increases the exposure of urban and
rural populations to ticks and we are
seeing sufferers from all regions of the
country.
Climate change is an engine of change in
health science and while self-allergy
may seem a trivial example, it is a very
powerful concept; our immune systems
turning on ourselves in the face of a
warming climate. Allergy medicine is full
of the human consequences of a
warming climate from self-allergy to
pan-allergens crossing botanical species
and we see new patterns of
disease emerging from the
environmental catastrophe we are
facing.
Learning about the engines of change in
medicine and discovering what health
science can do to limit our global impact
will become an increasingly important
aspect of Medicine as you become
leaders and innovators of the future. I
hope we can inspire you to think about
the ways we can all work to limit this and
avoid potential catastrophe.