Lyme Disease

A single tick bite can have debilitating consequences. Lyme disease is the most common disease carried by ticks in the United States, and the number of those afflicted is growing steadily. If left untreated, the diseases carried by ticks-known as tick-borne diseases-can cause severe pain, fatigue, neurological problems, and other serious health problems. The Institute of Medicine held a workshop October 11-12, 2010, to examine the state of the science in Lyme disease and other tick-borne diseases.

Lyme disease has been steadily on the rise since the 1990s, and the threat of Lyme is only expected to grow as warmer global temperatures potentially prolong the tick season. In 2018, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimated there were 33,666 confirmed and probable cases of Lyme disease reported in the United States. The Government of Canada reported 1,487 cases that same year. Lyme, if not treated early, can develop into a debilitating disease, with symptoms that can be felt for months or even years. Lyme Disease, Ticks and You is an easy-to-follow and essential guide to understanding, detecting and treating Lyme and other tick-borne diseases. Dr. Shelley Ball, a trained freshwater insect ecologist, is a long-term Lyme sufferer who has been infected multiple times, including with various other tick-borne diseases. Drawing from years of experience advocating for her own health, Dr. Ball has gathered together the information and resources the reader needs to not only understand the science, prevent tick bites and recognize Lyme, but also get treatment for this complex and often misdiagnosed disease. Chapters include: Chapter 2: What You Need to Know about Ticks and Lyme Disease Chapter 3: A Brief Biology of Lyme Disease Chapter 4: How Can I Reduce the Risk of a Tick Bite? Chapter 5: What If I'm Bitten? Chapter 6: Treating Lyme and Co-Infections Lyme Disease, Ticks and You is capped off with an extensive list of references and resources that will further equip each reader with the information they need to deal with ticks, Lyme and other tick-borne diseases.

Ticks carrying Lyme disease have rapidly spread across southern Canada. The disease is especially common in British Columbia, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. For active, outdoorsy people — like many Canadians — the risk of contracting Lyme rises the more time you spend in nature. Hikers, golfers, campers, hunters and dog-walkers all face the potential to be bitten by a tick and be infected with Lyme or another tick-borne disease. Despite the growing threat to public health in Canada, Lyme disease remains a controversial and poorly understood illness that can cause long-lasting problems. Usually cured when promptly treated, it often goes undiagnosed. Doctors have been slow to recognize it and its treatment is mired in controversy. Author Brian Owens looks at the conflicts that exist in recognizing, diagnosing and treating Lyme disease, and the failed human vaccine. He tells the stories of the politicians and patient advocates who have worked to raise awareness of the disease in Canada and covers the latest developments in science and medicine. This book is a mine of up-to-date, reliable, independent information. Find out how: To avoid being bitten by a tick To find and remove an embedded tick (they’re astonishingly small!) To avoid attracting ticks to your yard To get involved in citizen science projects to track the spread of ticks Ticks got to Canada Ticks find human targets Ticks feed and transmit the Lyme bacteria

A riveting thriller reminiscent of The Hot Zone, this true story dives into the mystery surrounding one of the most controversial and misdiagnosed conditions of our time—Lyme disease—and of Willy Burgdorfer, the man who discovered the microbe behind it, revealing his secret role in developing bug-borne biological weapons, and raising terrifying questions about the genesis of the epidemic of tick-borne diseases affecting millions of Americans today. While on vacation on Martha’s Vineyard, Kris Newby was bitten by an unseen tick. That one bite changed her life forever, pulling her into the abyss of a devastating illness that took ten doctors to diagnose and years to recover: Newby had become one of the 300,000 Americans who are afflicted with Lyme disease each year. As a science writer, she was driven to understand why this disease is so misunderstood, and its patients so mistreated. This quest led her to Willy Burgdorfer, the Lyme microbe’s discoverer, who revealed that he had developed bug-borne bioweapons during the Cold War, and believed that the Lyme epidemic was started by a military experiment gone wrong. In a superb, meticulous work of narrative journalism, Bitten takes readers on a journey to investigate these claims, from biological weapons facilities to interviews with biosecurity experts and microbiologists doing cutting-edge research, all the while uncovering darker truths about Willy. It also leads her to uncomfortable questions about why Lyme can be so difficult to both diagnose and treat, and why the government is so reluctant to classify chronic Lyme as a disease. A gripping, infectious page-turner, Bitten will shed a terrifying new light on an epidemic that is exacting an incalculable toll on us, upending much of what we believe we know about it.

Lyme disease is the most common tick-borne illness in the United States, with more than 300,000 cases diagnosed each year. However, doctors are deeply divided on how to diagnose and treat it, giving rise to the controversy known as the “Lyme Wars.” Firmly entrenched camps have emerged, causing physicians, patient communities, and insurance providers to be pitted against one another in a struggle to define Lyme disease and its clinical challenges. Health care providers may not be aware of its diverse manifestations or the limitations of diagnostic tests. Meanwhile, patients have felt dismissed by their doctors and confused by the conflicting opinions and dubious self-help information found online. In this authoritative book, the Columbia University Medical Center physicians Brian A. Fallon and Jennifer Sotsky explain that, despite the vexing “Lyme Wars,” there is cause for both doctors and patients to be optimistic. The past decade’s advances in precision medicine and biotechnology are reshaping our understanding of Lyme disease and accelerating the discovery of new tools to diagnose and treat it, such that the great divide previously separating medical communities is now being bridged. Drawing on both extensive clinical experience and cutting-edge research, Fallon, Sotsky, and their colleagues present these paradigm-shifting breakthroughs in language accessible to both sides. They clearly explain the immunologic, infectious, and neurologic basis of chronic symptoms, the cognitive and psychological impact of the disease, as well as current and emerging diagnostic tests, treatments, and prevention strategies. Written for the educated patient and health care provider seeking to learn more, Conquering Lyme Disease gives an up-to-the-minute overview of the science that is transforming the way we address this complex illness. It argues forcefully that the expanding plague of Lyme and other tick-borne diseases can be confronted successfully and may soon even be reversed.

NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS’ CHOICE • In this vulnerable, insightful memoir, the New York Times columnist tells the story of his five-year struggle with a disease that officially doesn’t exist, exploring the limits of modern medicine, the stories that we unexpectedly fall into, and the secrets that only suffering reveals. “A powerful memoir about our fragile hopes in the face of chronic illness.”—Kate Bowler, bestselling author of Everything Happens for a Reason In the summer of 2015, Ross Douthat was moving his family, with two young daughters and a pregnant wife, from Washington, D.C., to a sprawling farmhouse in a picturesque Connecticut town when he acquired a mysterious and devastating sickness. It left him sleepless, crippled, wracked with pain--a shell of himself. After months of seeing doctors and descending deeper into a physical inferno, he discovered that he had a disease which according to CDC definitions does not actually exist: the chronic form of Lyme disease, a hotly contested condition that devastates the lives of tens of thousands of people but has no official recognition--and no medically approved cure. From a rural dream house that now felt like a prison, Douthat's search for help takes him off the map of official medicine, into territory where cranks and conspiracies abound and patients are forced to take control of their own treatment and experiment on themselves. Slowly, against his instincts and assumptions, he realizes that many of the cranks and weirdos are right, that many supposed "hypochondriacs" are victims of an indifferent medical establishment, and that all kinds of unexpected experiences and revelations lurk beneath the surface of normal existence, in the places underneath. The Deep Places is a story about what happens when you are terribly sick and realize that even the doctors who are willing to treat you can only do so much. Along the way, Douthat describes his struggle back toward health with wit and candor, portraying sickness as the most terrible of gifts. It teaches you to appreciate the grace of ordinary life by taking that life away from you. It reveals the deep strangeness of the world, the possibility that the reasonable people might be wrong, and the necessity of figuring out things for yourself. And it proves, day by dreadful day, that you are stronger than you ever imagined, and that even in the depths there is always hope.

The cutting-edge new edition of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's famed "Yellow Book" is the most authoritative guide of its kind, with vital pre-travel healthcare tips and essential information on health risks abroad. It includes vaccination recommendations and disease prevention strategies for HIV/AIDS, cholera, hepatitis, influenza, plague, SARS, smallpox, viral hemorrhagic fevers, and many other illnesses.