Product Description

This fascinating book not only tells the history of the discovery of Lyme disease over centuries and continents but also provides the latest information about the disease and its treatment. In the process it offers revealing details about the medical process: how physicians make a diagnosis, how they test its accuracy, and how scientific inquiry is influenced by its cultural context. Dr. Jonathan Edlow begins his detective story in Lyme, Connecticut, with the accounts of two housewives who in the mid-1970s noticed a baffling array of symptoms afflicting members of their families and others in the community. As physicians studied this strange disease, they were led to reports of similar symptoms in other eras and countries. Edlow chronicles how connections were ultimately established between symptoms and tick bites, leading to the discovery of the stages of the disease, its specific microbial cause, and its treatment. And he brings the story into the twenty-first century by discussing legal and legislative issues as well as factors that have led to recent widespread outbreaks of Lyme disease and to the controversies over its diagnosis, vaccine, treatment, and even its very definition.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #71032 in Books
• Published on: 2004-04-10
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: 1.00 pounds
• Binding: Paperback
• 308 pages

From Booklist
Mark Twain wrote that the difference between fact and fiction is that fiction has to make sense. Edlow, an author of medical detective stories and a Harvard professor of medicine, indulges the luxury facts allow while chronicling the evolution of Lyme disease, and with its blind alleys and plot twists, the story of this puzzling illness validates Twain's statement. Almost nothing about Lyme disease makes sense. From its "discovery" in a rural New England town in the mid-1970s--after it was believed that modern antibiotics had all but eradicated infectious disease--to the ongoing debate over its duration, prevention, treatment, and even diagnosis, it has remained a topic of considerable controversy. As the title, which refers to the concentric, red-ringed lesion resulting from the bite of an infected tick, suggests, this well-documented book is about a newly targeted infectious disease, and it is as important for the light it sheds on the nature of scientific inquiry within the contemporary social and political context as it is for its information about Lyme disease. Donna Chavez
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
"A valuable guide for dealing with emerging diseases... The best thing of all about Bull's-Eye is that it lays out the unknowns along with the knowns, the mainstream view along with alternative readings, and thus reveals science for what it is: a perpetual, and admirable, work in progress." Andrew C. Revkin, New York Times Book Review; "Bull's-Eye is a compelling mystery and a riveting account of science in action." Robert B. Parker; "The story of an emerging infection and its history... beautifully written. Anyone who is curious about Lyme disease or medical discovery in general will find this book interesting reading." Raymond Dattwyler, New England Journal of Medicine"

Book Info
Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA. Chronicles the history of the discovery of Lyme disease over centuries and continents. Provides the latest information about the disease and its treatment, explaining the recent widespread outbreaks and examining the controversies over the diagnosis, vaccine, and treatment. Previous edition: c2003. Softcover.