Pamela Weintraub

When Pamela Weintraub and her husband moved their family to idyllic, pastoral Chappaqua, New York, in the early 1990s, they thought they were doing the best thing for their two young sons: open space, fresh air, lawns and woods to play in. When all four family members began to feel unwell, they ascribed their vague headaches, joint pains, and weariness to the normal wear and tear of busy suburban life. But as years passed, their symptoms multiplied and intensified, burgeoning into gross show more signs of disease: swollen knees, limbs that buzzed as though wired to a power grid, mood swings, extreme fatigue, and disabling pain. Eventually their oldest son, Jason, tested positive for Lyme disease, and Weintraub, a science journalist, thought she had found the answer for all of them--but her nightmare had just begun.
As with her quest for a diagnosis, almost everything about Lyme disease turned out to be controversial. 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.
On one side of the fight are the scientists who first studied it, initially writing it up in medical journals as a circular rash and an infection of the joints. The disease they describe, transmitted by the bite of a deer tick, is hard to catch and easy to cure no matter how advanced the case when first diagnosed. On the other side of the fight, rebel doctors and their desperately sick patients insist that Lyme and a soup of “coinfections” cause a spectrum of illness dramatically different from the one the scientists describe. Instead of just swollen knees and a rash, patients can experience exhaustion, chronic pain, and a “Lyme fog” that leaves them dazed and confused. Because their illness differs from the disease described in textbooks and often eludes blood tests, they go undiagnosed and untreated for years. As these patients struggle for answers, once-treatable infections become chronic, inexorably disseminating to cause disabling conditions that may never be cured. Complicating matters, a host of other pathogens inhabit the same ticks, causing similar or parallel forms of disease.
In this nuanced picture of the intense controversy and crippling uncertainty surrounding Lyme disease, Pamela Weintraub sheds light on one of the angriest medical disputes raging today. The most comprehensive book ever written about the past, present, and future of Lyme disease, Cure Unknown exposes the ticking clock of a raging epidemic and the vulnerability we all share. show less

Clear, concise and chilling this is the definitive book on Lyme disease.
It highlights the political machinations that resulted in half-assed guidelines and treatment protocols. It staggers the imagination how deliberately obtuse the medical field,in general, remains about this epidemic.
It highlights what happens when politics and health are married to money and patents.
It shows the disdain of academia for the doctors in the trenches with real patients with real issues.
It is criminal that show more the treatment of clinical cases of Lyme have to be begged for by patients and that is if they are "lucky enough" to have gotten the classic "bulls-eye" rash. At least the CDC proclaims that as diagnostic. Unless, of course, you live in Missouri for some reason.
Lyme remains a political and medical pariah, misunderstood, under-diagnosed, under-treated.
Though there are researchers working hard, for every revelation they have, another Dr. who treated Lyme has been hounded out of practice.
There is no conclusion, no happy ending and no cure for far too many.
If 20% of patients treated for strep throat never got well, wouldn't there be an uproar? Why is Lyme such a pariah? This book explores the reasons and does so with solid research by a well-respected science reporter. show less

Some science books are dense, dry, and difficult to read. Cure Unknown is the opposite. If you saw the documentary "Under Our Skin," you'll enjoy knowing more of the back story to the Lymelands. Weintraub writes with personal connection and great integrity.

Full of information, this is a must read if you want to understand Borrelia, or Lyme disease.