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.

CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 5.0 based on 60 reviews)

Cure Unknown by Gary Blakeman

5 Stars
November 06, 2009
Great Book. Get it if you or a person you care about has or suspects they have Lyme.

A MUST HAVE book to navigate lyme waters! by R. Andersen (Hudson Valley, NY)

5 Stars
October 31, 2009
Thanks to Pam Weintraub for combining her plethora of areas of expertise to compile such an amazing, factual, MUST HAVE book! Having been a lyme disease survivor and fighting the disease for over 25 years, I've spent over 6 figures and have seen over 40 doctors, been in countless hospitals and told to go home and die twice. I have spent time in both the IDSA and ILADS camps. I am a lyme war veteran, and my family has it as well. Having read many books on lyme, I am 100% confident to report that this book provides accurate, factual information and wraps it in a real-life "story", (which is Pam candidly sharing her life with us), that makes it relatable for the reader as Pam herself is a lyme veteran. Her journalism and science background is apparent and refreshing, combined with her writing style. Having read countless books on lyme, this is the FIRST book I recommend to anyone I know who has lyme and doesn't know where to turn or what's really going on, and why they can't seem to get accurate help and are confused as to "lyme politics". Thanks to Pam!!

Still reading . . . by see jane read

5 Stars
October 19, 2009
. . . but just had to say that this book is beyond amazing! I was aware of Cure Unknown over 6 months ago before I started my antibiotic treatment for Lyme, and at that point I was so cognitively impaired that I could barely process the minimal text on the front and back covers. I'm now around 75% recovered and have just started to read it (around 1/4 of the way through) and am so impressed that I can hardly breathe in parts. Weintraub takes a dizzyingly complex, poorly understood topic and transforms it into *the* most compelling and informative story about Lyme in existence. It's not for Lyme patients in the thick of the disease because they won't be able to comprehend such a dense story. It should, however, be required reading for the family and/or caretakers of people with Lyme and other tick-borne diseases. It should also be *required reading* for all med students. I've given up on the current crop of doctors out there right now, but maybe the new generation of doctors can change things. Maybe. I'll be back to update this review when I'm finished with Cure Unknown, but this is a good start. I couldn't hold back my praise for this important, meticulously researched book. It's truly a labor of love on Weintraub's part.

An important book. Well-written too. by B. Hoeft (New York, NY USA)

5 Stars
October 17, 2009
This is a well-written overview of a hidden epidemic. The author is a noted science journalist who deftly puts scientific debates side-by-side with the personal stories of people who are affected. Lyme Disease threatens people in many regions of the United States and elsewhere, and for some people the consequences can be progressive and systemically debilitating to the body and maddening to the mind. Risky activities and sites include: backyards, beaches, hiking, gardening, or just having a picnic or taking a walk or sitting on a stone wall in Lyme-endemic areas. Transmitted through a tick bite, the highest risk zones for Lyme include most of the suburban northeast (especially the leafy suburbs and exurbs within 100 miles of New York City and Boston), parts of the upper midwest, central California, and other regions. Worse, the people we rely on to help mitigate the symptoms and cure Lyme Disease have spent decades pitched in damaging battles with each other over professional turf, intellectual property, and profit-and-loss considerations for drug companies and health insurers. Patients have been the biggest losers in these battles. Public health progress has been impaired. Doctors, medical researchers, pharmaceutical companies, health insurers, state boards of health, and the federal CDC and NIH have divided and defended the narrowest, most restrictive views of diagnosis and treatment of Lyme Disease. The result today is mass confusion and low public awareness (which inhibits preventative measures as well as diagnosis and treatment); enforced under-diagnosis (due to narrow, exclusionary criteria); persecution of doctors who've taken risks to treat severely disabled patients with aggressive drug regimens; slow progress in scientific understanding; and treatment denials for many, many Lyme sufferers. There is hope in this book. But in order to see it, you have to read carefully and maintain some measure of faith in humanity. I hope and believe that free inquiry and scientific progress, eventually, will loosen the political gridlock over Lyme Disease. In time, I believe new and improved standards of diagnosis and treatment for Lyme Disease will take shape. The question is, when? And what are Lyme sufferers to do until then? Meanwhile the medical research community needs a more even distribution of resources in order to enable alternative lines of inquiry to reach the surface. I also agree with the Connecticut attorney general who brought anti-trust enforcement action against a small set of medical bigwigs who have spent decades defending their restrictive, exclusionary views while profiting handsomely from the status quo they've helped to enforce. Public health boards and medical standards of practice should serve primarily to guide the promotion of public health. If Weintraub's book is right (and unfortunately, I've heard elsewhere Weintraub is right), the public health boards and medical standards of practice have warped badly and hardened to protect and defend private wealth and prestige for a small set of medical elites at the expense of patients left to suffer without the full benefits that modern medicine could offer them. The more people read and discuss this book, the better.

cure unknown the greatest help by A Mother (Fountain Inn,SC USA)

5 Stars
October 14, 2009
I am happy that a 10 year lyme disease sufferer pointed this book out. . I have used bookmarks and highlighter while reading this book. This book can be used as a reference walking the jungle of lyme disease.It also is written in a way that it is not boaring to read even parts which are realy clinical. I found a lot of pointers where to look for doctors who are willing to help.

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