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Cure Unknown: Inside the Lyme Epidemic | 
 enlarge | Author: Pamela Weintraub
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Category: Book
List Price: $27.95
Buy New: $17.00
You Save: $10.95 (39%)
New (29) Used (9) from $17.00
Avg. Customer Rating:  23 reviews
Sales Rank: 6631
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
ASIN: 0312378122
Publication Date: June 17, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: private seller. Immaculate copy.
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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 18 more reviews...
A masterpiece of medical journalism. August 27, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This book is a masterpiece that not only unravels the confusing history of the raging medical debate about chronic Lyme disease, but successfully tracks ongoing research to better understand the disease and ultimately find a cure.
If you suffer with Lyme disease, be prepared for a very frustrating project as you try to follow the chapters that jump from story, to story, to interview and back again. Important dates are hard to remember and research chapters packed so full of critical facts that you will need a highlighter and notepad to digest all the information.
I found it extremely difficult to read not only because of the format but also because of the information. No matter how many times I re-read a chapter, for the most part I couldn't help but want each to end differently, like watching "Gone With The Wind" and hoping Rhett won't walk away at the end.
The current situation and meticulously documented facts are frustrating indeed, however, your determination to read the entire book will be rewarded as mine was, with the precious gift of understanding.
We who have Lyme disease are the victims. We suffer daily with the tragedy of how Lyme disease is treated by mainstream medicine. We suffer the humiliation of being told a disease doesn't exist in spite of the fact that it is medically proven with reams of documentation from top scientists. We suffer with the unbearable financial burden. We suffer the loss of friends. We suffer the loss of our lives (as we knew them), and unfortunately our story can't be re-written.
We are suspended in the fog of our disease along with the bigger fog of medical deception while doctors under-treat if they treat at all, and certain highly placed medical doctors "fix" tests to prove their theories instead of searching for solutions.
This state of affairs would be dreadful with any disease but for the raging epidemic that faces our nation today with Lyme disease, it is a crime beyond belief.
And yet the author does provide hope.
There is hope for a political change with Connecticut's Attorney General investigating the conflict of interest for the authors of the current IDSA's guidelines (Infectious Disease Society of America) for diagnosis and treatment of Lyme disease.
There is also hope for the medical community to redeem itself with the advent of new technologies and technicians.
For instance, a new team of top researchers currently gather under the leadership of infectious disease specialist Dr. Benjamin Luft (Stony Brook University) to methodically sequence every gene in every strain of B. burgdorferi which will allow diagnosticians to test for over 1800 possible proteins instead of the ten limited proteins as is now done with the western blot.
The Luft team is also testing a new antibiotic "Tigecycline" which kills spirochetes fast, possibly eliminating the need for such long courses of antibiotics.
An exciting hope for a new vaccine is being developed by Eugene Davidson, a molecular biologist who has shattered spirochetes using ultrasound and begun trials injecting the tiny pieces (non-infectious on their own) into laboratory animals, and thus far producing total immunity.
I plan to follow these developments very closely on my blog at [...] and desperately hope that meaningful answers will come before it is too late for me and others like me. Smiling at my grandson, I am confident that they will come in time to protect him.
The best non-fiction book of the year! August 25, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Pamela Weintraub's book about Lyme disease is a well written page turner. It is a must-read book for anyone interested in learning more about Lyme disease.
Very well done book. August 13, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
This book is very well written and explains Lyme from its discovery to its presnet state of debate over treatment protocols. The information is presented in a intersting way so you can get this important data without getting bogged down in things that are irrelevant. As other reviewers have pointed out it does not list Alternative or adjuncitive treatments to antibiotics so any reader would have to seach elsewhere for this data. With that said "Cure Unknown" is an appropriate title for this book.
A Must Read August 10, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
"Cure Unknown" is a must read for those with Lyme disease, those diagnosed with CFS, FMS,MS and many other "mystery" illnesses. If your doctor says, "It is all in your head","There is no such thing as Chronic Lyme", please read this book. If you wonder why the medical profession and insurance companies want to pretend Lyme disease does not exist, read this book. Pamela Weintraub tells the real story behind Lyme disease and gives real hope to sufferers and those who care.
Fills a need in Lyme literature bookshelf August 5, 2008
3 out of 6 found this review helpful
Having written four books on Lyme disease myself, I was skeptical about this book -- do we really need *another* Lyme disease book? As Lyme books flood the market, I think many are asking this question.
However, after reading this book, I can say that it is a valuable and unique book. I think the best accomplishment of the book is to neatly and thoroughly tie together the current state of affairs in the "Lyme world." Many books have bits and pieces of the current situation, but this book captures the snapshot of Lyme politics, treatment, research, and advocacy, in a clean, entertaining, and well-written fashion.
Additionally, I think the book will be very useful to the "masses" - both the public and the thousands of conventional physicians practicing "non-Lyme literate" medicine. For the public, this book has been written and presented accurately and professionally and will offer a much needed wake up call and education on Lyme disease, even for the beginner. For the physicians, the book will allow them to "get their feet wet" in the Lyme world without resorting to more fringe, less accepted books and writings.
The one area where the book is lacking is broad coverage of treatment options and alternative therapies, but this is an acceptable limitation, since that is not why this book was written. For treatment information, both conventional and alternative, I suggest reading the other books available on the topic, including the four I have written, and, for example, the excellent co-infection books penned by James Schaller, M.D. (covering Babesiosis and Bartonella infections).
Still, even with limited coverage of treatments, the book yet presents some quite fascinating and novel information on a few advanced treatment strategies, one of which was used to heal both the author of the book and one of the most prominent Lyme-literate doctors in the country (this particular treatment, which uses pulsed application of the cephalosporin antibiotic Ceftin, is discussed in Chapter 44, titled "How I Cured My Own Lyme Disease").
Yes, after more than a dozen Lyme books released in the last year or two, this book is worth the paper, and should be read by anyone affected by tick-borne disease.
Bryan Rosner
Author, "The Top 10 Lyme Disease Treatments"
Website: LymeBook Dot Com
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