Book Alert / Cure Unknown

Cure Unknown -- Inside the Lyme Epidemic by Pamela Weintraub, St. Martin's Press '08, $27.95, 408 pages, ISBN #0312378122. Index, notes and references, unillustrated.

"At first," writes science journalist Pamela Weintraub, "the vague headaches, joint pains and bone-weariness seemed like minor inconveniences but, as years passed, these symptoms intensified and multiplied, burgeoning into gross signs of disease: swollen knees, limbs that buzzed as though wired to a power grid, violent mood swings, extreme fatigue, and disabling pains."

If you're one of the 200,000 afflicted each year, you probably know Weintraub is relating classic signs of Lyme Disease. Her passion to relate the history of the disease, its effects and treatment are fueled by the fact that Lyme ravaged her own family. In her new book, she cites "five things you need to know about Lyme Disease (but don't):"

l. The key to complete cure is early diagnosis and treatment; of those infected for more than a year before diagnosis, some 20% will remain sick after standard treatment for the disease and may never get well.

2. The signs of Lyme are not limited to a simple rash and joint pain, but can include a host of serious neurological, cardiac and psychiatric effects as well as systemic complaints like pain and fatigue.

3. Currently, there is no reliable form of testing that can accurately pinpoint Lyme disease, so getting a proper diagnosis and a prompt course of antibiotic treatment is often extremely difficult.

4. No current course of treatment has been proven effective against all cases of late-stage Lyme disease.

5. Lyme and associated tick-borne infections are not restricted to the traditional "Lyme zones" in New England, the Midwest, or California and Oregon but, in aggregate, have spread throughout the country and the world.