Lyme disease is one of the fastest spreading infectious diseases in the United States today, with a CDC-estimated 200,000-plus new cases each year. Since Allen Steere published the first article on Lyme in 1977, millions of Americans have fallen prey to this insidious and vastly misunderstood microbe – one that continues to mystify the medical community and fuel an explosive controversy that seriously undermines the treatment and care of thousands of patients across the country.

With CURE UNKNOWN (St. Martins Press; June 17, 2008), science journalist Pamela Weintraub has produced the first truly comprehensive examination of Lyme, outlining her firsthand experience in dealing with the disease while also investigating the misconceptions about its unpredictable effects and the debate swirling around its very existence. Weintraub, as a journalist, mother and patient, sits in an inherently unique position to approach the subject, able to explore aspects of the disease from both a clinical and personal perspective, leading to a remarkably clear-eyed, wide-ranging account of the murky world of Lyme and its bevy of controversy.

CURE UNKNOWN opens with Weintraub's personal story in the early 1990s, when she and her family moved to a wooded property in Westchester County, New York, and promptly began to get sick. At first, 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. When a diagnosis of Lyme disease was finally pronounced for their eldest son, Weintraub figured that their troubles were over when, in reality, the nightmare had just begun.

From the length and type of treatment to the kind of practitioner needed to identify and treat the infection to the very definition of the disease itself, Lyme is a hotbed of contention. On one side of the fight are the scientists who first studied Lyme disease, initially writing it up in medical journals as a circular rash and simple joint infection. 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. On the other side of the fight, rebel doctors and patient advocacy groups insist that Lyme and a soup of "co-infections" cause a spectrum of illness dramatically different than the narrow set of signs that scientists describe. Caught in the middle of this medical tug-of-war are thousands of desperately ill patients, many of whom can only sit and wait as their once-treatable infections suddenly balloon into chronic, disabling conditions that may never be cured. In CURE UNKNOWN Weintraub provides a heavy-hitting work of investigative journalism that thoroughly explores the history, personalities and controversy surrounding Lyme disease, examining everything from the woefully inadequate tests used to "diagnose" Lyme to the biological makeup of the microbe itself. Weaving in her family's experiences with those of other patients across the country, Weintraub ultimately paints a nuanced, albeit frightening, picture of the "Lyme wars" and sheds light on what might be the angriest and least understood medical dispute today.

CURE UNKNOWN is a truly groundbreaking book about the politics, history, science and patient experience of Lyme disease, a remarkable piece of journalism that promises to change public perception of Lyme and its potentially devastating effects. Featuring a Foreword from Hillary Johnson, the author of the revolutionary Osler's Web (which won legitimacy for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome in the medical world), this is a must-read for anyone who comes into contact with Lyme and associated tick-borne diseases or the agents that cause them.