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Cure Unknown: Inside the Lyme Epidemic | 
| Author: Pamela Weintraub
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Category: Book
List Price: $27.95
Buy New: $14.85
You Save: $13.10 (47%)
New (34) Used (10) from $14.85
Avg. Customer Rating:  29 reviews
Sales Rank: 2898
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 432
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.5
Dimensions (in): 9.4 x 6.4 x 1.5
ISBN: 0312378122
Dewey Decimal Number: 616.92
EAN: 9780312378127
Publication Date: June 17, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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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.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 24 more reviews...
The ammunition you need to fight for treatment September 20, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I am currently fighting Lyme after three years undiagnosed. My symptoms were real and the science is real. The author recounts family experiences that will ring true for anyone who has fought this disease and battled the doctors who deny that the tests are faulty. More importantly, she helps the lay person understand the science that exists which proves the stealth of this organism.
Have undiagnosed pain or a recent diagnosis of fibromyalgia or chronic fatigue? Rheumatic disease that isn't responding to treatment? Had a Lyme test done but you were told it was negative? You need this book.
There is scientific evidence to support the need for new testing protocols.
THE book to read September 20, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
This is the book we've been waiting for! Pamela Weintraub has done a masterful job of researching, collating and presenting in an objective way the current state of Lyme Disease, its treatment, and the politics surrounding both. Read this and see "Under Our Skin", then share them with others.
I do not have Lyme, but a close friend does, and it's been very difficult watching him deal with this disease. When it's not caught early, it takes a long time to get rid of. Weintraub helps us understand why - and why more isn't being done about dealing with it.
CDC: Please read this book! September 16, 2008
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
Even after years of suffering with lyme disease, I learned many new things from Weintraub's book. The history and politics that surround this disease still amaze me and she does an excellent job chronicling both along with real life stories of people who suffer or suffered with lyme including herself.
I noted with great interest that Gary Wormser who so opposes the idea of chronic lyme refused to be interviewed. Anyone who has lyme or knows someone with lyme should read this book.
Fascinating Read September 15, 2008
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
This is a must read for anyone with Lyme Disease or caring for someone with Lyme Disease.
It should be read by every doctor in USA, UK and throughout the world.
With all the research articles it details, how can IDSA get away with their doctrine that it is so easy to Cure.
 Sensation, not science September 7, 2008
4 out of 23 found this review helpful
The title proclaims "Cure Unknown" in large, alarming and eye-catching type against a bleak gray cover, and Weintraub's book proves to be as sensational as the title and cover suggest. Such sensation makes science writing appealing and readable, but in this case it detracts more than it adds. Weintraub has many positive, reasonable points to make, but her immediate descent into hyperbole overshadows most of those points.
Certainly Lyme is a common disease in the rural and suburban New England; however "One cannot inhabit the northeastern suburbs without seeing the damage- children with headaches that never go away, forty year olds with limps, teenagers too fatigued to study or engage fully in the activities of life." (pg 210) is certainly an overstatement. Lyme disease, when left untreated, can be debilitating and painful. But the majority of cases are treated, even if only as a precautionary measure, and no lasting effects occur. Doctors are most definitely fallible human beings, but they are not systematically denying the existence of a disease. The tests for Lyme are not always the first test performed, but they are (to date) tricky and inconclusive, often providing both false positives and false negatives. This last is more a result of the limit of modern science, not a conscious denial of a disease by the medical establishment as a whole.
Reading the accounts of Weintraub's own experiences with Lyme and those of her interviewees is heart-wrenching; but it is not the rule, it is the exception. If her book spurs any increase in interest and support for Lyme research than it has certainly had a positive effect. Lyme is a problem. It is one that is being diligently researched and monitored by doctors and public health officials. WebMD lists at least 50 antibiotics that are used to treat Lyme disease; none of these facts justify the exaggeration of such a title or attitude as Weintraub displays.
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