Features
- Cover Type: Hard Cover with 432 pages
- Published by: St. Martin's Press
- Edition: 1st Edition June 10, 2008
- Written in: English
- ISBN 10 Number: 0312378122
- ISBN 13 Number: 978-0312378127
-
Book Dimensions:
9.4 x 6.4 x 1.5 inches
- Weighs: 1.4 pounds
Product Review
“Pamela Weintraub's book is compelling, clear and troubling.”
–Patti Adcroft, editorial director of
Discover magazine
“In
Cure, Unknown, Pamela Weintraub has produced both the definitive book about Lyme disease and associated disorders and a survivor’s account of a grueling medical odyssey. Weintraub is a masterful science writer and storyteller, and she tackles the quarrels and quagmires surrounding this baffling illness with intelligence and pathos. This is an important and unforgettable book, destined to make a lasting contribution to the field of investigative health journalism.”
–Kaja Perina, editor in chief of
Psychology Today"A thoroughly researched and well-written account of the disease'scontroversial history." --Jane Brody,
New York Times "Pam Weintraub, veteran science writer, weaves personal narrative withhard-hitting investigative journalism to bring the undergroundepidemic of Lyme and other tick-borne diseases up from under theradar." -Rebecca Wells, author of
Ya-Yas in Bloom and
Divine Secretsof the Ya-Ya Sisterhood. "I sometimes wonder if the only investigative writers who will possessthe necessary temerity to remove the white gloves and tackle theseputative experts to the ground will be those, like Weintraub and thelate Randy Shilts, whose personal experience demands that they followthe rocky trail that leads to the truth." -Hillary Johnson, author of
Osler's Web: Inside the Labyrinth of the Chronic Fatigue SyndromeEpidemic "Millions suffering from symptoms of a mysterious disease need sufferconfusion and loss no longer. If you want to know the real storybehind Lyme disease and how to find your way back to health, read thisbook." -Mark Hyman, MD, author of the
New York Times bestseller,
UltraMetabolism. "Science journalism at its best." --Amiram Katz, MD, Clinical Faculty,Neurology Department, Yale School of Medicine "Weintraub turns a tragic yet eye-opening experience into a shockingexposure of what can happen when egos, greed, and peer pressuresupercede objective evidence, allowing patients to suffer chronic,disabling illness." –Donna Chavez,
Booklist "Exhaustively researched and highly recommended." –Tina Neville, Library Journal "A tale of biological complexities, scientific turf battles, politicalintrigue, human egos and money – lots of it." –Dorothy Kupcha Leland,
Sacramento Bee "Living with Lyme gave Weintraub both the insight and the doggedambition to find out some truths rather than remaining stuck atthe pro-Lyme, anti-Lyme debate, Weintraub spent many hoursinterviewing researchers who are experts in the ticks that spreadLyme, and the bacterial spirochete, Borrelia burgdorferi, that causesit. What she found is that these researchers -- at places like theState University of New York at Stony Brook on Long Island, and theUniversity of California at Davis -- are slowly figuring out howcomplex the bacteria and the disease are. And Weintraub said, theseresearchers, by and large, confirm what many Lyme patients havelearned through bitter experience -- the bacteria can cause apersistent infection that may not be treated easily by a couple ofweeks of antibiotics." --Robert Miller,
Danbury News-Times "The view from inside the tick tornado: Sober but scary A scienceand health journalist, Weintraub writes clearly and passionately abouta mysterious illness that has confounded physicians, patients andscientists for more than three decades, while she tries to balancepersonal narrative and objective journalism a comprehensive andcompassionate guide to a dreaded illness named after a bucolic,tick-infested town on Long Island Sound." --Bill Williams,
HartfordCourant "In the war of information on Lyme disease, patient activist groupshave started from a marked disadvantage to the medical establishmentin terms of visibility and credibility. That may be changing, andscience journalist Pamela Weintraub's new book, "Cure Unknown: Insidethe Lyme Epidemic" (St. Martin's Press), could be one reason.Weintraub, a senior editor at Discover magazine, uses her family'sprotracted Lyme odyssey as the jumping off point for an explorationinto the history, politics and, predominantly, the patient experienceof the tick-borne disease." --- Susan Morse,
Washington Post
Product Description
A groundbreaking and controversial narrative investigation into the science, history, medical politics, and patient experience of Lyme disease told by a science journalist whose entire family contracted the disease.Pamela Weintraub paints a nuanced picture of the intense controversy and crippling uncertainty surrounding Lyme disease and sheds light on one of the angriest medical disputes raging today. She also reveals her personal odyssey through the land of Lyme after she, her husband and their two sons became seriously ill with the disease beginning in the 1990s. From the microbe causing the infection and the definition of the disease, to the length and type of treatment and the kind of practitioner needed, Lyme is a hotbed of contention. With a CDC-estimated 200,000-plus new cases of Lyme disease a year, it has surpassed both AIDS and TB as the fastest-spreading infectious disease in the U.S. Yet alarmingly, in many cases, because the disease often eludes blood tests and not all patients exhibit the classic "bulls-eye" rash and swollen joints, doctors are woefully unable or unwilling to diagnose Lyme. When that happens, once-treatable infections become chronic, inexorably disseminating to cause disabling conditions that may never be cured. Weintraub reveals why the Lyme epidemic has been allowed to explode, why patients are dismissed, and what can be done to raise awareness in the medical community and find a cure. The most comprehensive book ever written about the past, present and future of Lyme disease, this exposes the ticking clock of a raging epidemic.
Reader ReviewsAs a California physician, I have found myself diagnosing Lyme disease in an increasing number of patients who come to me with vague, multi-system complaints, but certain consistent patterns: living, working or playing in outdoor brush or field areas (gardening, golf, hiking, camping)is the first, but many have only a little outdoor exposure. Second, complaints of the slow onset of stiff, aching joints that get better and worse, sore muscles, that spasm, tingle and turn numb off and on, headaches and fatigue, problems with sleep, an up and down course that slowly gets worse. Pamela Weintraub, a professional writer and editor, tells her story of her family's move to a rural New York community as healthy active people, only to have all four family members contract Lyme disease in the early 90's, and face not only the disability of this infection but also the confusing double talk of a medical community in denial. She tells not only her story but those of others, and in the telling reveals the difficulties in getting an accurate diagnosis, in finding a doctor to believe and treat the patient, and in being able emotionally and financially to continue the treatment until the disease is resolved. If you are a patient with Lyme disease, perhaps you will learn some things you didn't know before. If you are someone who has believed that perhaps Lyme disease is a myth, or that the people who have it are exaggerating, this is the book for you. If you are a physician, and have quoted the Infectious Disease Society of America's treatment guidelines to a suffering patient to explain why you will not treat them, or will only treat them for three weeks- this is the book for you. Those of us who have Lyme disease, or treat Lyme disease, know it to be as devastating and disabling as a HIV infection, and in many cases, as difficult to cure. Give this book to doctors, to journalists, to scout leaders who take kids into the woods, to your friends who go camping, gardening, horseback riding; to your friends with furry pets, or those who enjoy the deer in their yards. We have a serious growing epidemic in this country, affecting young and old. Let's wake ourselves up to proper treatment and prevention. Dr. Tedde M. Rinker, Redwood City, California
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